Once Upon a Ring
by Aaron Ledgers
Summary: Katie and Nathaniel Sanders are identical twins, with nothing in common aside from their looks and dysfunctional living situation. But when a stranger connects them both to Sauron's Ring and drags them to Middle Earth against their will, the twins are separated from each other and all hell breaks loose. Can Kate manage to keep her sanity intact long enough to find her brother?
1. Prologue: Just One Step

**Disclaimer and Author's note:** I don't own J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Anyway, this is going to be a very, very long story, so kick back and relax. I also created a video preview for this story. Those of you who wish to watch it, just head on over to youtube and type in " **ONCE UPON A RING - BY AARON LEDGERS**." It's epic. I recommend watching it, lol. Plus, it might give you a hint on what to expect from this, or maybe not. You never know.

* * *

 **THE FELLOWSHIP: ONCE UPON A RING  
Dedicated to Katherine and Nathaniel Sanders**

 **PART ONE: MODERN EARTH**

"Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life.  
And thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."  
 **—Thomas Jefferson—**

* * *

A gentle autumn breeze was sliding down the deserted streets of New York City.

The sun was beginning to rise, and the sky had been illuminated with the colors of a beautiful new dawn.

However, despite the early hour, no cars were driving along the concrete roads and almost nobody was walking along the sidewalks. In fact, only one visible person was standing under the morning glow that glimmered on the horizon. The girl in question was only four feet and six inches tall, her hair was whiter than snow, and her skin was extremely pale.

At the moment, her eyes were closed tightly: nothing aside from the silver lashes framing those gems could be seen as she stood there on top of the railing. Her arms were spread like an eagle, and her thigh-length hair was drifting in the wind: aside from her tresses and skirt, she was still as a statue. She remained that way for an unmeasurable amount of time... barely even seeming to be breathing.

But then... the sun finally slid over the horizon, and she slowly opened her eyes.

Two large, empty, iridescent irises refracted the light like twin mirrors, twinkling with subtle hues of amethyst, crystal blue, and baby pink. In front of her was a gorgeous view... the buildings below her gleamed and sparkled, and not far beyond was the ocean, which glittered like diamonds. However, instead of looking at this sunrise with a smile, her pale face was emotionless.

In that moment, silence reigned free, punctuated only by a heartbeat.

Her own heartbeat.

Above her was the sky, with the glorious colors of a magnificent dawn.

In front of her was a view that even a queen could love.

But below her lay nearly fifty stories worth of empty air.

One more step... just one more step and this would be the last sunrise she'd ever lay eyes on. She slowly tilted her head back and stared at the beautiful sky with a frightening amount of emptiness in her eyes, feeling no admiration for the magnificence she was beholding.

The vast plane above her brought nothing but loneliness.

She was hollow.

It only made her realize how small her existence really was.

Even a morning like this could no longer bring her joy, and that's why the moment had come: she could escape... she could be free of everything with just one more step.

Just one step... it wasn't so hard, right?

She could be free of the pain... the fear... the loneliness... everything she hated so badly.

Everything she wanted but could never truly have.

She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath, planning on lifting her right foot... but her leg wouldn't budge: it was shaking so violently that she couldn't even budge it from the railing. A gentle wind blew through her silvery hair when she finally lowered her arms and looked down at the distant road: the breeze helped to cool her stinging cheeks and eyes, but it was doing nothing to quell the burning sensation in her heart.

She couldn't even kill herself. She couldn't escape.

There was no way out.

"Just one step," she finally whispered, shivering all over as she stared at the spinning ground below with blank eyes. "That's all I need. One step... just one."

However, before she could continue thinking about it, the sound of a door opening behind her filled the air and she froze like a statue once again.

"Wha?! What the hell?" someone snorted, sounding more than a little startled. "No way... your hair is... it's white! It's totally white!"

The girl blinked and slowly turned her head to look at the idiot who'd spoken: she blinked again in confusion when she beheld a clean-cut man who looked to be in his late twenties. He was staring at her with raised eyebrows, and he was rubbing the stubble on his chin: his short black hair and steel grey eyes made him seem very plain.

"Obviously," she stated in a startlingly emotionless voice, giving him a vacant stare; she seemed to be looking through him rather than at him. "Albinism does that to people."

The man twitched after he glanced down, because it was only then that he realized where, exactly, she was standing: his face immediately drained of color.

"Kid, what the hell are you doing?" he calmly demanded, slowly taking a step forward and lifting his hands. "Seriously, come down from there! It's dangerous!"

"Yes, it is," Kate stated almost wistfully, giving the guy an empty smile and turning away to face the sunrise. "So much that it would definitely be fatal. Funny, isn't it?"

"What are you saying?! H-hey, come on! Come down from there, right now!" the man roughly demanded; regardless, he looked severely shaken up. "I don't know what's going on with you, but suicide definitely isn't the answer. If you want to talk, come down and I'll take you out to eat or something, okay? Just, come down!"

Katherine's eyes were hidden by her hair by that point.

Then, she dropped her arms, letting them hang limply.

"Shut up," she finally muttered, slowly twisting her legs and sliding off of the skyscraper's thin railing; the business man stared at her with startled grey eyes and watched as she picked up her school bag, because not long after she started walking for the door he'd just come through. Without bothering to wait for a response, she swept past him, purposely ignoring the way his enormous eyes locked onto her hair.

"Wait," he commanded sharply. "What's your name, kid? And how old are you?"

She halted for a moment.

"You're not entitled to know anything about me," she coldly informed him, slowly turning her head and glaring over her shoulder. "Nor do I owe you an explanation about my age. Just forget you ever saw me here."

"Not until you tell me your name," he calmly retorted, slowly walking over and setting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Please, just answer the question..."

Her amethyst eyes narrowed a little and she averted her gaze... wondering what to do.

But then, she had a vision of the man in front of her.

 _The world around her dissolved and she was suddenly standing in the middle of a street._

 _Her eyes widened when she saw him sitting in a blue minivan at a stoplight._ _He was looking at something on his phone, so when the light turned and he pulled out into the busy street, he didn't see the bus going faster than the city speed limit allowed._ _Kate flinched and squeezed her eyes shut to block out the sight of the two vehicles colliding, and she hesitantly turned away before opening her eyes. She blinked when she caught sight of two street signs._

 _Fifth Avenue and Broadway._

 _She squeezed her eyes shut again, this time even more tightly..._

But when she opened them, she was once again standing on the rooftop she had never really left in the first place.

The man in front of her had backed off a step and was now looking at her with a wary expression.

"I'll tell you something more important than my name," she said in a low voice, not meeting his gaze. "Stay the hell away from the crossing of Broadway and Fifth Avenue."

"What?" he scoffed, doing an extreme double take. "What do you mean?"

"Just do as I say!" she snapped. "And don't touch your phone while you're driving."

"Are you giving me advice or looking down on me?"

"Neither," she muttered, shaking her head. "Not even minivans can withstand an accident like that. Anyway, I'm leaving now."

When he merely gawked at her, she scowled and swept off towards the rooftop door and headed inside the building. After taking a moment to calm her racing heart, she pressed the button to call the elevator and clasped her school bag with both hands, tapping her foot in irritation. Once she stepped in and turned around, however, she noticed that the man was staring at her with a weird expression. To her immense surprise, just as the elevators started closing, he abruptly lunged forward.

She jumped when he stuck his arm through the gap.

"What's your name?" he demanded, giving her a very odd expression indeed. "Before you go, that's all I want to know: first and last."

"Could you let me leave, please? I'm gonna be late."

"Not until you tell me your first and last name."

"You're really going to harass me?"

"Until you tell me your name," the man slyly retorted, narrowing his eyes, "or better yet, how you know what kind of vehicle I drive."

She glared at him for a long moment, amethyst eyes sharpening in an intimidating manner.

"Katie," she said in a monotone, averting her eyes. "My name is Katie Sanders. Now, please let me go before I call the police."

For a long moment... the man did nothing; then, without a word, he withdrew his arm and the elevator doors started sliding shut again.

She glanced up at him one last time just before they fully closed.

He looked half intrigued, half disbelieving, but there was also a gleam of curiosity in his steel grey eyes.

Then he was gone and she was alone with her uneasiness.

The ride down to the ground floor was mostly silent... punctuated only by the tacky music that came along with riding in a New York elevator. Not long after that, she left the fancy hotel and began the three-mile walk to the one place she hated more than her current living residence.

School.

By the time she arrived, Katie Sanders had wiped all traces of emotion off her face.

Bracing herself behind a wall of isolation, she hefted her backpack and headed through the rusted gates of her 'government sponsored' high school. It was reputed as a private academy, but all of the locals knew it was actually a place for juvenile delinquents and orphans: the success rate for Ivy Ridge was so low that even the worst of the homeless would cringe.

Katie had arrived a little earlier than usual, so she figured she'd have enough time to rest in the library before her first class started. Mostly because she couldn't deal with the bullying so early on... at least, not on this particular day.

When she walked into the library, however, her irritation dissolved.

This spacious room was almost always empty since the majority of the students in her school liked to slack off and do nothing with their lives. That's why it had become her sanctuary... and one of the only two people who Katie actually cared about was sitting in it all the time, feeling just as lonely as she was. The librarian never had any visitors, so she was always grinning whenever Katherine showed up. Being smiled at had been nothing more than a fantasy until she'd started attending Ivy Ridge, so for all it's faults, this little bit of joy kind of made up for everything.

"Hello, Miss McKinley," Katie greeted softly, catching the attention of the old woman dozing off in front of the desk. "Sorry for startling you... I'm here a little earlier today."

"Katherine?" the woman gently asked, grandmotherly brown eyes blooming with warmth. "Well, now, I didn't expect to see you so early. School hasn't even started yet... but then again, I guess that could work to my favor, hmmm? Would you like a cup of hot cocoa?"

"R-really?" Kate peeped, feeling as though the melancholy ache in her heart were already washing away. "Yes, please... thank you, Miss McKinley."

"Oh, goody! Now, now, don't you worry about it," the woman chuckled, stamping a returned book and watching as the slender albino smoothed her black school skirt; then she got up and walked over to the coffee pot. "I can see you've got another bruise on your cheek... forgive me for prying, but have you been eating properly, Katie? That awful wretch had better be feeding you and Nathan... oh, and that reminds me! How is your brother doing? I haven't seen him around lately."

"I'm... eating..." Katie reluctantly admitted, widely skirting the topic; it wasn't exactly a lie, since she was always eating in the cafeteria, but home was another story entirely. "And... Nathan is like he usually is: distant."

"Oh... well, don't worry, darling: he'll come around soon, I'm sure," the librarian sighed, clucking her tongue as she waited for the water to boil. "You know, boys his age are difficult to understand. I used to have the same problems with my own son when he was your age: one day, he clamped up like a turtle and stopped talking to me. I think Nate probably just has a crush on someone."

"It's a thought, but I doubt it..." Katie mumbled, pulling on a strand of her hair before she sat down with the woman behind the desk. "I already told you about why he acts the way he does. I doubt he'll ever like anybody with the trust issues he has... and since everyone thinks I'm a witch, a lot of people have been keeping their distance from him, too."

Shockingly enough, this was the sad truth: everyone at school, even some of the teachers, believed that Katie was a real life witch due to some exceedingly bizarre occurrences when she'd somehow managed to predict the future. Her strange looks had never really helped matters, but still... that's what everyone currently believed. Her reputation had stemmed from an event that had taken place little over a month ago: her final class had just let out, she'd already gotten her things, and she'd been on her way out the door.

But then, she'd brushed arms with her principle, who'd been on his way inside.

Inexplicably, she'd had a vision of him being killed by a potted plant and had whirled around, roughly grabbing his arm.

Considering the type of school she attended, she shouldn't have been surprised that he'd assumed she'd been trying to attack him.

After he'd slammed Kate down on her back and started restraining her, the pot had fallen from the window above and shattered on the concrete.

The man had instantly stopped what he was doing to take a look at it... and after looking above, his face had gone slack.

For the next two weeks, he'd repeatedly called her into his office trying to get the truth out of her. Unknown to Kate, however, or even the principle himself... the gossip about his actions had spread throughout the whole school, and every time he'd called her in, there had been people listening to his one-sided conversation outside the office. Things had been relatively okay until she'd finally caved under his coaxing and admitted that she sometimes had visions and strange feelings about bad things happening to the people around her.

She'd told him that she didn't know how or why it happened, but it was usually better to avoid ignoring the feelings.

She'd then proceeded to explain that the event with the potted plant was a perfect example and curtly closed her mouth again, hoping he was finished. Because that was the truth: Katie sometimes had dreams that somehow came true later on. Granted, it didn't always happen, and most of the time she didn't even remember her dreams unless the events they'd represented started taking place in reality. More often than the dreams, though, she would sometimes just... _see_ things... or randomly get strange feelings about certain events before they took place.

During that conversation, she had seen it in the man's eyes that he hadn't believed her, but it _had_ taken two and a half weeks just to get a semi-normal response out of her, so he'd accepted it without further question. Unfortunately, the moment she'd let that secret slip, her response to the principle had spread throughout the school. And since she had never really been liked by the people around her, it hadn't taken long for the teasing to start. Eventually, it had devolved further: going from teasing, to bullying, to being treated like an outcast by her classmates.

Truthfully, it pissed her off: she'd been reluctant to confess her secret in the first place because of how much she hated it.

Having dreams that could come true at any time was terrifying to think about, because for her, a nightmare might not be a nightmare later on.

But nobody understood her point of view enough to bother thinking about things like that.

In their eyes, she was just a new toy to play with: an item of the school who needed to be taken down a few pegs.

The only part of this situation that she was grateful for was the fact that her brother had no issues with dreams coming true. He didn't even have premonitions like she did, so at the very least... he had mostly been safe from the harassment everyone at school had been giving her.

However, even though the two of them were twins, they weren't exactly the closest siblings in the world. Quite the contrary, despite her emotionless facade, Katie actually loved her brother so much that sometimes it was almost too painful to keep going.

And today, she had almost stopped altogether because of him.

After all, he was the main reason why she'd been up on that railing.

"' _God, you should just disappear already_ ,'" Katherine murmured, staring at the floor with hollow eyes. " _'I really hope something bad happens to you today.'_ "

"Eh? What was that?" the librarian asked, looking up at her with those grandmotherly brown eyes. "Did you say something, honey?"

"No," Kate called, shaking her head. "Nothing..."

Nothing.

That word embodied everything she was to her brother.

To anybody, really: her home life was just as fucked up as her school life, so she knew as much from personal experience.

Truthfully, Nathan had never stepped in when their foster mother had started hitting her, nor had he done so when she'd been abused by their previous foster families. At school, after her secret had been exposed, he'd sided with the students who'd started tormenting her, and laughed with the kids who'd made her cry at night. He didn't care about her even a little bit, but the worst part was the fact that Katie couldn't even blame him for it. After all, she was responsible for a horrifying accident that had occurred _because_ she'd had one of her premonitions.

Her vision of it beforehand is what had caused everything leading up to the end result, and it was all because she'd tried to prevent it from happening.

After a moment of staring at the ground, Katie let go of her hair and pushed her bangs out of her eyes.

"Are you all right?" Mrs. McKinley sighed, looking at her. "You seem a little more down than usual."

Kate was pensive. She didn't really want to respond.

"It's just... hard..." she admitted, shaking her head before bending over and straightening her knee-high stockings. "I was already singled out now and then because I look so _different_ with my albinism, but now I'm treated like a virus that nobody wants to catch. I didn't really think it would bother me all that much when it first started, but things have changed. Some of the creeps from my class, like Alan and his two friends, Salem and Mitchel... they get physical with the bullying. And since the regular teasing never ends, I'm actually starting to hate coming to school."

The woman sighed.

"People fear what they don't understand, and what they don't understand is usually different from them," the librarian sighed, setting a mug of hot chocolate in front of her. "That's why they lash out at you, Sweetie: don't let it get to you. And if Alan or either of those boys he hangs out with hurts you, tell me, okay? I won't hesitate to take it up with the principle!"

"I'll tell you if something happens, like always," Katie murmured, closing her eyes and tiredly sipping her cocoa, "but letting other people handle my problems just makes the antagonism worse."

"Well, if that's the case, try your hardest to resist them, then: you're strong enough to handle things!" the woman murmured, then brightened up. "By the way, I have something that may cheer you up!"

"Really?" Katie asked, looking up at the woman with somber violet eyes. "What is it?'"

"Lady and gentle-girl, feast your eyes on this: ta-daaaa!" the elderly woman laughed, holding up a weathered book with a proud wink; Katie's mouth slowly fell open in shock and she stared at it blankly, not even believing her eyes. "It took me a very long time to save up enough money to buy this! It's one of the original copies, too... it's a rarity! And since you're technically the only person on the hold list, I can renew it for as long as you want! No restrictions, no complications, it's yours! Just give your friend my regards, okay?"

Katie's eyes very nearly started watering when she took the book from the librarian and touched the cover with shaking fingers.

"How in the world did you find this thing?!" she whispered, slowly looking up at Miss McKinley in sheer awe. "There are only ten thousand copies in existence! So, how?!"

"Trust me, it wasn't easy," the woman sighed, frowning a little as she thought about it. "I found it only by chance, honestly: I was shopping in Guam during last week's vacation when I spotted the title in a rundown bookstore. They wanted six hundred dollars for that book! I had to work for a little while during my vacation to completely afford it, but in the end, it's here and you're happy. Right?"

Katie didn't respond.

On top of being an emotional wreck, she was extremely tired since she'd been having vivid, recurring nightmares for the past three months. Her social worker had told her the bad dreams would pass nearly two weeks ago when she'd brought it up, but he'd been wrong: they were getting worse.

In fact... lately, she had been having extremely sinister nightmares concerning giant birds of all varieties, disembodied voices, blood, and lots of fire.

However, when Kate had finally opened up and discreetly spoken to the old librarian about a 'friend' who was having 'similar' nightmares, the albino had been startled to learn that the woman thought her visions actually sounded familiar. The result of that conversation had led to the discovery of a rare book with only ten thousand copies on the market.

Unfortunately, the fact that her nightmares had led to the discovery of this book had seriously frightened her.

She hadn't wanted to think they were real.

"Good God..." Katie whispered, heart dropping through the floor when she flipped the book open to the first page; an evil-looking monster with black wings had been sketched into it. "U-u-um... thank you, Miss McKinley... my... friend will be happy now that we can find out what her dreams mean."

"Don't you worry about a thing, little dear," the woman sighed, giving her that warm, grandmotherly grin before she glanced at the clock. "Oh, my! Is it really almost six thirty already?! You should hurry up and get to your first class, otherwise you'll end up being tardy!"

"I can't," the pale girl mumbled, lowering her eyes in dismay. "Alan and his cronies have no qualms about skipping classes, so I'm kind of stuck here. They know I always head for the library each morning, remember? I had to go through the back window last time since they wouldn't go away."

"Oh, is that all? Maybe I can help you," the librarian chuckled, heading over to her desk and opening the top drawer; when she pulled out a tiny key and held it out to Katie, the silver-haired teen frowned and took it with gentle hands. "See? It's good being a teacher's pet now and then!"

"What's this?" Katie hesitantly asked, blinking at the key with a worried expression. "I mean... what does it go to? The window?"

"No, silly, it's the key to the back door," the elderly woman replied, pointing to the door resting at the very back of the library. "It lets out near the drama rooms, and the hallway will take you right to the cafeteria. I'm sure you'll be able to find your way from there, right?"

"Yes... I often go down to the drama rooms to read after school gets out," Katie admitted, stuffing the book into her backpack. "Are you sure you don't mind doing this for me, though? I mean, couldn't you get in trouble for loaning me one of the faculty keys?"

"Oh, pish posh! You'd never tattle on me," the old woman giggled, waving a dainty hand. "Get going, kiddo... don't be late for class."

"Okay... thanks again," Katie sighed, giving the woman a rare smile before she jogged towards the door. However, just before she got there, a terrible ache assaulted her and her feet slowed. After a moment, she turned around and clenched her fists. "Um, hey... I... this morning... I..."

"Yes?" Mrs. McKinley asked, blinking at her with a grandmotherly smile. "What is it?"

The girl stood there for a long moment, trying to figure out what she wanted to say in order to make the tightness in her heart go away. Katie opened her mouth, as if she were going to speak, but then she closed it again and lowered her eyes: not long after, her irises became somewhat lifeless and they lost their sheen once again. Shaking her head, she turned away from the confused librarian and unlocked the rear door; the girl blinked when it opened and pocketed the key before giving the librarian a long look.

The woman frowned with worry when the albino stared at her for several moments of silence.

Trying to convey a message that would most likely never get through.

Then she slipped out into the drama corridor, hefting her bag as she prepared to face the worst.

It wasn't because of her situation, though... it was because, she was still holding onto the last shreds of her optimism.

Her motto was simple: if you only expect the worst, you can only be pleasantly surprised.

And as terrible as it might sound, it was with good reason that her ideals had fallen so far: it had been ingrained in her heart and her head a long time ago that if you feel, you will break... but if you _don't_ feel, nothing can hurt you. But because her treacherous heart wasn't made of stone, hurt was all she understood, no matter how much she wanted to avoid it.

And that's why... on days when she didn't go to her private high school, she simply threw on some old clothes and headed out into the woods behind her house to be alone. She had a garden back there, a place she had been tending to for months now. Her garden was peaceful and quiet... soothing, in a way. It was so different from her normal, chaotic, everyday life that she would have preferred being homeless.

If only so she could live in her garden forever.

Because, when Katie was tending to her secret garden, there was no pain... there was no sadness or anxiety... there was no guilt.

There was no need to pretend that she was normal.

And if she was going to be honest with herself... Katherine Ashley Sanders was not a normal girl.

At all.


	2. Chapter 1: Just a Normal Day

**Chapter One: Just a Normal Day**

 _The first thing she noticed was the darkness_.

 _It was pitch black but smelled damp and musty... almost like the air of an old cellar._ _It seemed oddly familiar to her, even though she couldn't recall ever being in such a place._ _The mustiness of this void was also accompanied by a faint metallic scent that burned her nose... copper...? Or was it blood? The sound of water droplets falling into a puddle echoed from somewhere deep within the cold shadows, causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. Upon sitting up, she felt something soft slide over her bare shoulders and paused... she knew what it was..._ _it was hair._

 _Yes, it was definitely her hair: she could remember that much._

 _Her hair was white, and extremely long according to her brother._

 _Wait... brother?_

 _Who was her brother?_

 _Better yet, where on earth was she?_

 _"Where am I...?" Kate whispered, touching her forehead in groggy confusion. "How did I get here?"_

 _After feeling around in the dark, her small hands were met with the sensation of slick, wet bricks sliding across her fingertips: she couldn't remember anything, but she knew that this must have been part of the walls surrounding her. Slowly getting up from the cold stone floor, she felt around and tried to create an image in her head like a blind person would._

 _The place was eerily silent to the point where her shallow breathing seemed too loud._

 _Yet, despite the fact there was no sound other than her breathing, Katie somehow felt as though someone else was here in the dark - someone who was watching her move around with unfriendly eyes._

 _Her small hand slipped on the slick wall when a set of footsteps echoed through the air directly in front of her... almost as though someone were walking down a long hall just on the other side of a nearby wall. Ignoring her blindness, the tiny girl hurried towards the source of the sound with her small hand still feeling for a door._

 _When her fingers slid across a metal surface, her heart skipped a beat._

 _Then s_ _he finally found a knob... and twisted it with all of her strength._

 _The moment_ _that_ _door opened wide... the world around her dissolved with a blinding light and she suddenly found herself staring at a galaxy that had been dotted with millions upon millions of flickering stars. Nothing else was surrounding her except for that night sky: she was floating in an emptiness that seemed to stretch onward until the end of time._

 _"Where am I?" she whispered, slowly looking around as her voice echoed away into the void of stars. "Hello?"_

 _Her cloud-white hair slid around her body in soft tendrils as she gazed at everything, drifting in a weightless manner. A bright flash of light suddenly lit up the world around her, stirring the stars like ripples in a pond. When it faded, she beheld a handsome woman with extraordinarily long hair standing upon a rock in the middle of a liquid surface. Somehow, Katie knew she'd seen this lady somewhere once before... and even though she couldn't remember why, she knew the woman was powerful._

 _"Who are you?" Katherine whispered, staring at the woman from her spot in the swirling starlight. "Where are we? Why are we here?"_

 _"It is has been a long time," the woman stated in a lilting voice, staring at her face with gentle blue eyes. "You are no longer who you once were, but your soul and your heart are the same. Great evil is looking for you... you must not be pulled back into the stream of destiny, for if you do... your fate will repeat itself."_

 _"My... fate?" Katie asked, staring at the woman with blank eyes. "What do you mean? Who are you?"_

 _The woman merely stared at her with eyes that seemed wise beyond their age: with an otherworldly grace, the gorgeous blonde lifted her hand..._

 _And horrifying visions instantly burned their way into Katherine's mind._

 _Her pupils dilated and she shrieked, clutching her head as flashes of horrifying monsters slitting the throats of screaming men and women roared through her head. Flashes of death... destruction, fire... her pink eyes widened when she beheld visions of crows feasting on rotting flesh, and she choked when their black feathers started raining down upon the blood-soaked earth. High above, a crimson moon hung in the air, and a single, raw-throated scream of agony echoed towards the heavens, wild like an animal's roar._

 _The sound of it stirred her heart in an unfamiliar way._

 _Grief? Familiarity?_

" _Do not return," the blonde woman stated, lowering her arm with a solemn air. "You mustn't return to this Land. Your life here ended long ago."_

 _"W-what are you saying?!" Katie shrieked, staring at the woman with a horrified expression. "Who ARE you?!"_

 _However, she froze and stared at something just beyond the spot where the blonde woman was standing. The stars around her were rippling... but then, in a single moment, they were burned away in a searing wave of heat and time somehow slowed down. Katie's silver hair was blasted away from her body in a weightless manner and her heart flew up her throat when a giant cat's eye made of fire rose behind the flickering blonde woman. She squeaked and clamped up like a mouse when the pupil contracted into a catlike slit and landed on her shaking form._

 _The heat from its evil gaze made her heart quiver violently._

 _"_ ** _You cannot hide..._** _ **"** a hellish voice whispered, making her heart nearly stop; the mere sound of it sent a jolt of icy terror sweeping through her body. Katie covered her ears and tried not to listen anymore, but the voice was echoing inside her head rather than outside of it. "_ ** _I see you..._ _"_**

"-ate!" a muffled voice called.

 _"What IS this?!" Katherine cried, shielding her face when the fiery wind intensified. "Ow! Ow! Someone, help me!"_

 _"T-!" the woman called, voice cutting out and filling with static. "Do not... - urn! Fate... history... -eware of the gatekee-!"_

 _Katherine's long hair drifted around as the heat from the Eye's gaze fell across her body... and all of a sudden, she couldn't move._

 _"Someone... help... me..." Katie whispered. "Nathan... help..."_

 _"_ _ **I see you... I see you... I see you...** "_ _the demonic voice chanted. "_ ** _I've found you!_ _"_**

 _"No!" she whispered, slowly falling to her knees. "Leave me... alone!"_

 _"_ ** _Come to me!_** _" the eye hissed; the blonde woman's blue eyes slowly widened when Katie's hair started lifting towards the sky and her body erupted with a wave of brilliant blue fire. "_ ** _Come back to the fires of Mor-_ _"_**

"KATE ASHLEY! GET _UP!"_ someone roared, voice a little muffled. "NATHANIEL! GET YOUR LITTLE SISTER OUT OF BED, OR SO HELP ME GOD, I'LL STRANGLE HER!"

With a violent jolt, Katie's eyes snapped open wide and she gasped, frantically looking around her room with a palpitating heart. Her breathing was ragged and uneven as she took in her familiar surroundings. After a few moments of trying to calm her racing pulse, the albino girl slowly sat up and touched her forehead: strands of her silver hair were plastered against her cheeks and neck due to the cold sweat that had enveloped her body.

"A... a dream..." she whispered hoarsely, closing her eyes. "It was just a nightmare. Not real."

"Kate!" Nate's voice loudly hissed, banging on her door. "Kate, come on! Get up!"

"Katherine!" a female voice shrieked from somewhere far below. "Get your ass out of that bed right now or I swear I'll beat your ass! Nate, you'll be sleeping outside tonight if you don't wake her up!"

"Fuck," Nate muttered, hastily opening the door and sliding inside her room. "Get up! She threatened me, too! Are you happy?"

When he turned around and looked at her, Kate was once again struck with the odd sensation that she was looking at herself with short hair. Her brother looked almost exactly like her in every way aside from his broader shoulders, slightly thicker jaw, and taller stature. His facial features were very thin and soft like hers were, and his eyes had the exact same shape as her own, but there was something slightly more masculine about his face.

"This is rare," Kate noted, staring at her brother with blank eyes. "You hardly ever come into my room, even when Toni and her crazy boyfriend are angry."

"Just hurry up and get dressed!" Nate snapped, folding his arms before turning around. "I'm not leaving your room until you're ready, all right?! We're already late, and I _don't_ want to sleep outside tonight! Toni threatened to put me out again if I didn't get you up within three minutes!"

Kate's eyes widened and she bolted out of bed.

The last thing she wanted was to give him another reason to hate her.

After furiously rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she hastily brushed her hair and pulled her side-bangs behind her head, expertly tying them in place with a large black ribbon. Kate then slipped on her school clothes, and after making a few adjustments to her Academy uniform, she buttoned her navy-blue blazer, zipped up her knee-length black skirt, and hastily grabbed her bag.

"That was fast," Nate sneered, averting his eyes. "You're acting like Emily again."

Kate's heart skipped a beat and her stomach tied itself into a painful knot.

She wanted to let out a protest, but her throat locked up and she merely remained silent since there really was nothing she could say to counter his words. Even though she and her twin were completely identical aside from their genders, he hated her to the point where he'd sided with her enemies instead of protecting her from them.

"It's habitual," Kate quietly replied, ignoring his latter statement. "I do it every morning, so its bound to get easier over time."

"Shut up," Nate grunted, lifting his violet eyes and glaring at her hair, "and while you're at it, take the damn ribbon out. It's contraband at school, anyway."

"No," Kate retorted, not meeting his gaze. "Emily was the one who gave it to me."

"And that's precisely why I don't like you wearing it," he snarled, making her flinch. "Take the fucking ribbon out of your hair!"

"No," Kate weakly repeated, turning away from him and folding her arms. "I won't."

"Fuck this! I'm done," Nate hissed, stomping past her so quickly that tendrils of her long hair followed him. "God, I _really_ hope something horrible happens to you today. Disappear already!"

Kate flinched when he slammed her bedroom door shut and thumped down the stairs.

"Again..." she whispered, feeling her eyes stinging. "How many times have you said it this week, Nathan?"

She didn't know, exactly, but it had to have been over twenty times in the last three days alone.

Once she was able to shake off the pain coursing through her heart, the pale girl slinked out of her room and walked past her angry-eyed foster mother.

The woman already had a bottle of Bud Light in her hands.

"Hold it right there, you little shit!" Toni snapped, clutching her arm; the girl winced a bit when the woman's fingers dug into her skin, but she stopped long enough to look at her. "I got a call from one of your teachers yesterday asking if your hair and eye color were natural, and I'm pissed because he threw a tantrum."

"How is that my fault?" Katherine carefully inquired, shivering when the woman glared. "Nathan and I never asked to look like this."

"If that's the case, tell your brother that he needs to pick up a double set of colored contacts from the market today. I'm taking both of you to dye your hair blonde this afternoon!"

"Huh?!" Katie squeaked, eyes widening in horror. "T-Toni, you can't! Our eyes are too sensitive for contacts, and our hair will fall out if we try to dye it! It won't work, and I am _not_ walking around completely bald AND blind!"

The woman looked startled by her response, but it quickly turned to rage.

"Don't talk back to me, you little shit!" she snapped, thrusting her forward. "If it's not possible the good old fashioned way, we'll do a temporary dye! Now get going and don't be late! If I get a call saying you were tardy, I'll make you wish you were never born!"

Kate very nearly smacked her cheek on the corner of the door in an attempt to catch her balance, but once she was outside she sprinted down the city streets as fast as she could go. This part of her day was the trickiest since she had to walk three miles each morning without being late for her first class. Toni wouldn't pay for her get on a bus. Then again, she she loved to run, so it wasn't a big deal.

Running made her dream of the day she could keep going without needing to stop.

When she was about halfway to her destination, Kate made it to the East River Overpass on Saint Matthew's BLVD and spotted her twin stopping in front of a pretty brunette wearing their academy uniform. She instantly slowed to a halt and gazed at the two of them, heart inexplicably growing heavier when they leaned against the metal railing and started talking to each other.

She watched the two of them for a little while, wondering what they were doing... but then her brother turned.

And the sound of the traffic, the water... no, _everything..._ it all went silent in her ears.

For a long moment, all she could do was stare, eyes large and knees shaking.

The world blurred.

Her eyes burned.

And for the first time in a very, very long time... tears slid down her cheeks, distorting what lay before her.

Her brother was smiling.

The last time she'd seen him smile, for any reason, had been almost six years ago.

She stood there, feeling as though she were going to shatter into pieces, and watched as her brother chatted with the brunette at his side.

 _He hates me,_ Katherine realized, feeling her chest tightening; rubbing her eyes, she lowered her head and buried her face in her hands. _He really hates me... if he can smile at other people like that with no problem when I'm not around, there's no other explanation for it._

Secretly, she had believed that he simply hated the world. That he was angry about everything that had happened. That maybe, deep down, he cared about her but couldn't express it anymore.

She had been wrong.

He didn't hate the world.

He hated _her._

She stood there for an immeasurable amount of time, muscles trembling and heart burning, face buried in her hands as the chilling New York wind tugged at her hair: during that time, her brother and the brunette walked away, holding each other's hands. When they finally turned around the corner and vanished from sight, Kate continued standing there. Shaking. After several more moments, she lifted her face and rubbed her eyes. Then she slowly turned away and looked out over the East River with a haunted expression.

She had always known that her brother blamed her for what had happened.

The proof she had rested in the fact that he was always saying that he wished something bad would happen to her.

He didn't need her at all... hell, he didn't even want to be anywhere near her.

He was right.

Disappearing would be a good thing.

Slowly climbing up onto the bridge railing, the girl sat down on the edge of it and looked out at the canal, planning to jump off.

But once again, just like that day on the hotel rooftop, her muscles froze and all she could do was stare at the watery chasm below.

She'd wanted to die for a long time now, but she was too much of a coward: she couldn't take action because she was too scared to try.

Her hair billowed around her face when a cold wind touched her back, ruffling her pleated skirt.

She sat there, willing her body to move... but it wouldn't budge.

So she lifted her eyes and took in what lay before her, trying to find something, anything... just like before. Beyond the canal was the ocean... and since it was a very cold, grey day, she felt as though the sea matched her mood. After a moment of gazing at the endless planes of gray water in front of her, she slid to her feet and took a deep breath, planning to jump for real.

However, someone unexpectedly caught her wrist and she glanced to the left, eyeing the culprit with irritated eyes.

She furrowed her brows when she realized it was a little boy standing behind her: he didn't look any older than ten years old.

She froze when he looked at her with piercing brown eyes.

"You mustn't jump," he stated calmly, examining her with an emotionless visage. "You're... Precious."

Katherine blinked, staring at him in total bewilderment.

"Who are you?" she deadpanned, frowning at him. "You shouldn't say stuff like that to people: it's not funny!"

"You're right, Precious... it's not," he quietly replied, looking at her with that same unnervingly piercing expression. "You mustn't jump. Must not harm yourself."

"Kid, leave me alone!" Kate snapped, jerking her hand out of his grasp. "Didn't your parents teach you not to talk to strangers?"

The boy's face twisted into a rather strange looking smile.

"We know you very well... because you are my own," he whispered, looking up at her with eyes that weren't all there. "My precious..."

Okay, he may have been young, but he was definitely weird.

"Go away," Kate ordered, mouth pulling taught. "You don't know me... I'm a stranger, so head home."

"Oh, but we do know you! We know everything... about your school, about your brother, and about the _red rivers_."

Katherine froze like a statue.

Knees shaking, she looked down at him with a spooked visage, suddenly feeling afraid of him.

"How... how do you know about that?!" she whispered. "How?! You're like, ten years old! How do you know about that?! Tell me!"

"You'll know the truth soon enough, Precious. The Dark Master is looking for us."

Kate's heart palpitated and prickles ran down her spine when the boy's brown eyes suddenly flicked upward.

Not even two seconds later, a huge black feather fell down in front of Katie's eyes, making the hair on her neck stand up.

When a deep thundering sound unexpectedly slammed against the air from far off in the distance, she jumped and whirled to face the ocean.

"What the fuck was that?" she whispered, staring off towards the foggy New York coast with blank eyes. "An explosion...?"

The moment she spoke, a sudden screech echoed from the fog.

The sound curdled her blood.

It was like a cross between a banshee's shriek and a raven's croak.

Katie rubbed the goosebumps on her arms and leaned forward, squinting to see past the fog.

"What in the world was that?" Kate finally muttered, looking up at the sky. "Kid, you should go home... that wasn't normal."

To her surprise, when she turned around, the boy she'd been talking to had vanished. Katherine instantly blinked and looked around, even going as far as leaning over the edge of the water just in case the crazy boy had jumped off the bridge. Somehow, he had actually managed to disappear without a single trace, which completely baffled her. Feeling more than a little disturbed, she turned to jump off the bridge herself, planning on getting it over with.

Then another hand gripped her wrist.

"It seems we meet yet again," a familiar voice greeted; she blinked when she was forcibly pulled off the railing and set flat on her feet without warning. "Still, why is it that every time I see you, you're in a rather dangerous situation? Are you trying to kill yourself or are you just a thrill seeker?"

Kate sighed in irritation when she beheld a familiar clean-cut man wearing a pinstripe suit.

The man from the hotel rooftop was back. Ever since the day he'd first talked to her, he'd been popping up out of nowhere at the weirdest of times just to ask her questions about herself. Usually when she was contemplating different ways to die or even just standing in a fairly precarious-looking situation.

"Why are you here again?" Katie grumbled, folding her arms. "Are you stalking me or something?"

"Not at all," he chuckled, smiling broadly. "I spotted you by chance, that's all."

"And you keep acting like you know me... why?" Kate asked suspiciously, giving him a wary stare. "Are you one of those crazy types who has no friends? Because if you are, you're talking to the wrong person: I don't know if you've noticed it yet, but I'm not exactly a people person, either."

"More like I was wondering if you'd answer a few of my questions today."

Again, with the request to ask questions.

Katie let out a sigh of defeat and decided to humor him just once, if only because it would make him leave her alone.

"Fine. Get on with it," she deadpanned. "After this, leave me alone and don't bother me again, am I clear?"

"With pleasure!" he sighed, then looked around and leaned close to her face, which in turn made her lean away with furrowed brows. "Look... I don't know how you knew what was going to happen to me that day, but as I'm sure you already know, your warning actually saved my life. I was curious about what you said to me, so I planned on ignoring my phone during the entire drive to work."

 _Oh,_ she silently drawled, letting out a huff. _So that's what this is about._

"And let me guess," Kate droned, rolling her eyes, "you did?"

"Yes, I did," he confirmed, then his bright expression turned dark, "but when I got to the stoplight at the crossing of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, I received a really important call from my boss. The coincidence gave me a terrible start, I'll admit it flat out... but still, I waited. Then, as terrifying as it was... when the light turned green... a runaway bus going sixty miles an hour _flew_ across the street, lost control, and crashed into a telephone pole."

Katherine listened with hollow eyes: her irises literally had no sheen whatsoever.

"I swear to god," the man continued, "if it hadn't been for you, I probably would pulled out in front of it."

"Well, be glad you didn't then," she muttered, turning as if to walk away. "I'm going to be late."

"Please, tell me," her stalker exclaimed. "How did you know?! How did you know about the accident? And about my car?"

Kate stood there with a grim expression on her face, not meeting his eyes.

"I don't really want to talk about that," Katie retorted, instantly stepping away from him with a fierce glare. "Just be thankful that my premonition saved your life and forget that this ever happened. From here on out, you never met me."

"Premonition?" he asked, staring at her with a fierce curiosity. "You mean, like... a _psychic_ premonition?"

"Call it what you want, I don't really care," Kate snapped, grabbing her bag and turning on her heel. "Anyway, you came here to thank me, right? Well, here ya go: you're welcome! Now, please go away before I file a restraining order!"

"Calm down," he sighed, giving her a subtle scowl. "All I wanted to do was find out the truth and thank you... okay?"

"Thank me in a way that doesn't involve interacting with me, then," Kate snapped, giving him a glare. "I don't like people, so leave me alone! I have enough of my own problems to deal with!"

Just as she was about to storm off, she happened to catch a glimpse of the huge black feather resting on the ground.

Staring at it with furrowed brows, she wondered what sort of bird could drop a feather that big. Than, almost abruptly, Kate had a weird mental flash of nine hooded figures standing in a dark classroom. The feeling she got with the flash was beyond ominous. Quivering for a moment, she rapidly shook her head free of the disjointed images before jogging towards her school.

The rest of her walk was uneventful, but since there wasn't enough time to stop by the library, Kate headed to her first class.

Unfortunately, she was halted by a group of girls standing outside of the door.

She stared at them for a moment, wondering why they were blocking her until a voice split the silence of the hall.

"Well, look who it is," someone said in a familiar lilting drawl. "You actually showed up late today!"

Slowly turning her head, Katherine winced internally when she found herself staring at three vaguely familiar females: the girl on the left was Alexa Milano, a Hispanic beauty who was known throughout the Academy for procuring fake ID cards; the girl on the right was a redheaded punk named Brittany Thompson, who had a temper to match her hair; and the girl leading the two of them was none other Tiffany Walt, the Queen Bee of Ivy Ridge.

Moving in like vultures, Brittany and Alexa leaned against the lockers on either side of Kate with folded arms.

Tiffany, on the other hand, walked right up to Katherine, waving her hand in front of her nose.

"I smell a fake blonde whore," she simpered. "You should _really_ study outside. We don't want to get an STD from you."

Kate's eyebrow twitched.

Feeding into bullying was never a smart idea, but she was the sort of person who couldn't help it if the insult got under her skin.

"Hypocrisy isn't a virtue, Tiffany," she murmured, staring straight into the girl's eyes, "and for the record, my hair is _white._ Not blonde."

 _"White?"_ Tiffany laughed, looking around to see if anyone else was witnessing this perfect moment of comedy. "Who the hell dyes their hair _white?!"_

Kate clenched her jaw, trying to fight it back... but, she couldn't.

Tiffany had been sitting next to her in class since the day she'd first transferred, but that had only given her a chance to figure out what bugged her.

"You know what? Shut up. You don't have the right to talk about me like you _know_ me."

Everyone fell silent and students all over the place stared at her when the snappish retort filled the air.

Even Tiffany looked a little startled for a few seconds, but she flawlessly covered it up with a smirk.

"Excuse me?" she asked, planting a hand on your hip. "What did you just say?"

"You heard every word," Kate calmly retorted, giving her a very unabashed glare. "Don't talk about me me like you know me."

"Ugh, like, bye Felicia," Tiffany scoffed, flapping a dismissive hand. "I know _everything_ about _everyone_ at this school!"

"No, you don't," Katie growled, hefting her school bag. "Just because you spend all your class time staring at me doesn't mean you know me. I don't talk to people, and people don't talk to me, so you know absolutely nothing about me aside from the little you've seen."

"And we can see that you're obviously fake as fuck!" Alexa snapped. "That dye job is ugly, and your makeup choice is hideous! I mean, really, how much time do you actually spend trying to bleach your ugly ass eyebrows and eyelashes? It just makes your ugliness stand out more!"

Kate glared at her, eyes narrowing, then turned her back on them.

With precise movements, she lifted her small white hands and tucked them beneath her hair.

Then, with a single fluid movement, she jerked her arms and tossed it into the air with a flip that would have made a L'Oréal commercial director jealous. Eyes widened all over the place when her extremely long tresses cascaded down around her torso in gleaming tendrils: beautiful strands of silver slid around her like a cloak, gleaming like snow. Once it fell back into place, she turned, brushing her square-cut bangs away from her eyes.

"Did you all get a good look?" Katie irrtiably asked, making Tiffany snap her mouth shut. "I hope so, because I'm not doing it again."

"All I saw was a dumb bitch trying to show off," Alexa snapped. "Who gives a fuck about some super long hair extensions?"

Katie's face turned red and she finally lost her shit.

"Are you girls _high_ or just obscenely stupid?!" she shrieked, stomping her foot. "I was showing you my roots, dumbass! I've looked like this since the day I was born! This is my _natural_ hair color, and if you REALLY know everything about me like you claim to, you'd already know I can't afford useless crap like makeup or hair extensions!"

"Bullshit," Tiffany cooed, leaning forward and clutching the end of her hair; with a violent jerk, she tugged on the silken strands, making Katie's scalp smart. However, her face scrunched up and she tugged harder when nothing came free, but the rough action made Kate let out an involuntary yelp that she muffled by pressing her lips together. "The fuck?!"

"Let go of my hair!" Katie snapped. "Right now!"

"That can't be all you!" TIffany snapped, pulling away and folding her arms. "And even if it is, it sure as hell isn't natural!"

"Newsflash," Kate spat. "I've never dyed my hair, I'm not wearing contacts, and unlike you, I'm still a _virgin_ , so shut the fuck up and _leave me the hell alone. Bitch._ "

With that, she turned and stalked over to the door, glaring at the girls standing in front of it.

"Move," she coldly commanded, looking at them with sharp violet eyes.

Everyone instantly backed off, so she moved into the room and headed over to her desk.

"What a weirdo," one of the girls still standing in the hall muttered. "Maybe the rumors about her being a witch really _are_ true."

"I've heard that Albinos are actually considered demons in some countries," another whispered. "Don't doubt the rumors!"

"Ew..." a third girl muttered. "So, she's an albino? Nasty... that's even worse than a bad dye-job."

"What's an albino?"

"It's a virus that turns rats, snakes, and people pure white," a black girl snorted. "I heard it's contagious."

"For real?!" a nearby boy exclaimed. "So, the witch actually caught a disease that turned her hair and skin totally white? And that's why she looks so weird?"

"Yeah," the black girl explained, lifting her head proudly. "I heard it also turns people's eyes bright red. I mean, just take a look at her brother! He's all white, too! He probably caught the damn virus! People in Africa get it all the time, trust me."

"Oh, man, that's freaky. I really hope I don't catch the albino disease from going to class with her."

Kate rolled her eyes in disgust at their outrageous stupidity and took her seat by the window, pulling out her usual book.

 _Albinism is genetic condition,_ she silently muttered, sneering. _Fucking morons._

After she cracked it open, she ignored everyone around her.

By the time the other girls took their seats, she was already so far into the pages that the snickers and subtle antagonism didn't even register. It was the book Mrs. McKinley had given her. Every day since she'd gotten it, the girl read it everywhere she went, looking for something she couldn't place: at school, at home, whenever she had a spare moment... even until her eyes closed.

Unfortunately, everything she'd seen in it so far was ridiculous: from mythological creatures to monsters she'd never even heard of before, even in movies, this book had it all. It contained descriptions about things like angels, demons, orcs, winged horses, giant wolves, walking trees, and giant birds... about fairies, will-o'-the-wisps, sea serpents, trolls, and so much more... so much, in fact, that it made her head spin.

And yet, so far she hadn't seen a single thing that sparked familiarity with her nightmares: for all her searching, this was really just a regular mythology book, and it obviously had nothing to do with her dreams since none of the creatures within its pages actually existed. Even so, she read through it until the teacher came in, then put the book away and stared out the window.

There was a small announcement concerning the student council president, but she hardly noticed.

The girl who'd been chosen to manage the class, Erika Montgomery, was given free reign over her classmates while the teacher went to the office.

Unfortunately, that's also when things began to go downhill.

"As you all know," Erika said, addressing the class with folded hands, "the grading system for this half of the term is going to be a bit different since the school made some changes to our lessons. From today onward, every single person sitting in this classroom contributes to the average grading system. Which basically means you'll be compared to all the other classes. The teachers believe some competitive motivation is necessary to get our school rating up, so let's do our best, okay?"

"Excuse me?" Tiffany suddenly called. "I have a question about the seating chart."

"Yes?" Erika called, lifting her stunning blue eyes and looking at her with a confident expression. "What is it?"

"Is it okay if I change my seat?" Tiffany inquired, looking at her fingernails with a cute smile. "I'm getting tired of this one."

"Eh? I... well, I'm not so sure about that," Erika faltered, staring at the girl in dismay. "The seating chart is arranged by everyone's last names."

"Come on!" Tiffany coaxed, smiling brightly. "I need a change around here! It's boring sitting at this seat?"

"Why don't you just tell her the truth?" another girl muttered, looking up with a smirk. "Just admit that you don't want to sit next to the _witch."_

Kate didn't even blink when the class started sniggering, nor did she raise her eyes when Erika's confident expression faltered.

She simply kept her face blank and stared at her hands.

Every now and then, a daringly bold student would do something to get a little attention and make a fool out of her, so it didn't really bother her as much as it should have. Especially since it was Tiffany doing the mocking: even though Little Miss Blondie was a lovely little angel in front of the teachers, there wasn't a single girl in their whole school who _didn't_ know she was always standing on a shady street corner after dark.

Plus, sex-related rumors in their school circulated really quick since the guys liked to brag.

Long-story short, Tiffany was the Academy's bicycle: nearly every guy in school had gotten a ride at least once at some point.

Katherine shuddered and uncomfortably tightened her knees together, feeling nauseous.

She didn't get how people could lose their morality like that.

"Whatever," Tiffany sighed, standing up and cocking her hip; after a moment, she looked at everyone with a mocking grin. "It's just, she's too _creepy!_ I can't stand it anymore! She's always reading books with pictures of dragons and spells and wizards or whatever, and don't even get me started on all the stuff she draws in her notebook! She's too weird to be my partner!"

"What'd you expect?" a boy hooted, eliciting even louder fits of laughter. "She's a witch! She pretty much _lives_ on that crap!"

"Come on! Someone change seats with me!" Tiffany wailed, flailing her arms in a mocking manner. "I don't wanna get the albino disease!"

"Please, stop it!" Erika called, futilely trying to speak over the uproarious laughter that filled the room. "Everyone, be quiet! This isn't right!"

"Who cares?" Tiffany snorted. "This freak makes studying impossible. How can I focus if I need to worry about getting cursed or sick with her disease?!"

 _Albinism isn't like that,_ Katie silently protested, staring at her desk. _I'm not a witch._

Unfortunately, nobody cared... and they most likely never would, so she kept her mouth shut.


	3. Chapter 2: Ripples

**Chapter Two: Ripples**

 _The darkness had come for her again._

 _Katie slowly opened her eyes and stared into the void of shadows, her heart speeding up almost instinctively._

 _The girl could hear the same distant dripping sound and smell the same cloying metallic air... as though the room were full of stale blood. Her heart skipped a beat when the realization hit her: something or someone had been slaughtered down here, all alone in the darkness. The albino lifted her hands, but paused when she felt something strange: instead of hitting a slick stone wall, she felt warm skin and satin-like hair beneath her fingertips. After several moments of touching this anomaly with a bit of apprehension, she registered heavy breathing and blinked._

 _She didn't know why, but she vaguely recognized the person standing in front of her._

 _Not enough to know who it was, but enough to tell her this person was familiar._

 _"Who are you...?" Katie whispered, struggling to see through the shadows. "Why are you here?"_

 _"Shut up..." a female voice sneered, making her twitch. "I've always hated your 'oh-poor-me' act! I'm going to cut him away from you... you're the reason he's so unhappy!"_

 _"_ _I see you..._ _" a familiar ragged voice whispered, echoing out of the darkness with the chilling rasp of fire. "_ _I've found you..._ _"_

 _Almost immediately, the void of stars filled the air and Katie saw a gorgeous brunette standing in front of her. Katherine twitched when she realized she was staring at the the student council president of her school, Erika Montgomery: the girl's crystal blue eyes were full of cold hatred, and her expression was wrinkled with a terrible smile that had been laced with rage and satisfaction. It wasn't until the moment her blue eyes began to mirror the fiery cat's eye that the albino realized she was holding an enormous sword high above her head, shimmering tip facing a blood-red sky._

 _High above, a crimson moon rippled into view._

"-ight as well..." a distant voice sniggered. "After all, she won't know."

 _Katherine's heart froze when the blade came down._

"NO!" Kate shrieked, bolting upright in bed and flailing around in mass hysteria. "NO! NO, NO, NO! NOOOOO! HELP!"

"Holy shit!" Nathan squawked, jumping away from her bedside with both hands raised. "Chill! Chill! I wasn't really gonna do it!"

"H-huh?" Katie asked, glancing at up her brother with frightened violet eyes: the boy was holding an uncapped marker in his left hand, but aside from that, he looked rather spooked for the first time in a long time. "Nathan...? Wait, w-what are you doing in my bedroom?! And what's with the marker?!"

"N-nothing, all right? Damn, Kate, you nearly gave me a heart attack," the albino boy irritably huffed, shakily capping the marker and shoving it into his back pocket; she blinked when he hefted his backpack. "Anyway, get dressed... Toni's letting us ride a public bus since another social worker is coming to check on us this afternoon. She said she doesn't want us to be tired for the meeting."

"For real?!" the girl squeaked, looking at him in surprise; he merely stared at her with a flat expression. "O-okay... um, I'll... I'll be ready in a second. Just hold on."

True to her word, the girl leapt out of bed and slipped on her uniform in a flurry of action, but her brother scowled when she tied the familiar black ribbon into her hair. Once Katie had gone through her usual morning routine and had grabbed all of her needed belongings, the twins reluctantly went downstairs together and headed for the bus stop without meeting each other's eyes: it was an extremely rare treat for them to be able to ride the bus and not have to walk all the way to school... but for some weird reason, Katie's smile didn't stay fixed in place like she'd intended it to.

She ended up staring into space with such a blank expression that she actually caught Nathan's attention.

"What's your deal?" he muttered, inconspicuously nudging her shoulder to avoid drawing attention; the girl blinked a few times and looked up at him with a dazed expression before shrugging and staring out the window. He seemed rather vexed by her lack of response, but the girl was kind of happy to see the anxiety lacing his expression. The fact that he was worried was a sign that he might have still cared about her.

Even if it was only a little.

"It's nothing... I'm just surprised by the fact that you're concerned," Katie murmured quietly, glancing up at him with stoic eyes when he frowned. "You've already sided with the popular groups in school, and you've befriended every other person who doesn't like me... so, why are you worried now?"

"You know why I'm worried," Nathan quietly retorted, giving her a serious look. "The last time you woke up screaming, someone _died._ "

That made Katie shut her mouth and keep it shut, since for once... he was completely correct.

It gave her a sick feeling in the core of her heart.

"No need to worry," Katie stated softly, finally giving her brother a very feeble smile. "This time, the nightmares are about me, and I don't plan on doing anything to prevent them."

Nathan's eyes flickered a bit upon hearing her statement, and for a few moments... he actually looked scared.

"You said 'nightmares...'" her brother stated slowly, narrowing his violet eyes and looking at her with a very serious expression, "not 'nightmare.' Does that mean you've been having more than one?"

"Why do you care?" Kate distantly inquired, not meeting his gaze and staring blankly out the window. "I already told you that you don't need to worry."

"Don't give me that bullshit," Nate snapped, gripping her shoulder and jerking her around. "Just tell me already!"

"Nathan, I've been having this same nightmare for so long that I stopped counting over four months ago," Katie lifelessly retorted, shooting him a sullen glare and ignoring how his eyes widened. "It's always the same one, so quit worrying. Like I said, it's not about you!"

"That's not the point!" he hissed, tightening his grip on her shoulders. "Why didn't you tell me until now?! Are you always _trying_ to piss me off?!"

"Excuse me?" Katherine sneered, lifting her hands and shoving him back a step; for once, he looked startled and taken aback by her actions. "What makes you think you're entitled to know anything about me?! Did you think being twins automatically means you get to know everything that happens in my life? Don't make me laugh, Nate... I didn't say anything to you because I didn't see a point to it."

"Why the hell not?" the albino boy snapped, glowering at her with a clenched jaw. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because every single time you get mad, even over small matters, you say that you wish something bad would happen to me," Kate stated softly, turning away with a dazed expression on her face; she didn't even notice that her brother twitched. "I've started having nightmares about me dying, Nathan... and with the way things are between us, I figured you'd be happy enough to throw a _party_ if I told you I thought I was going to die. That's why I kept my mouth shut. Are you satisfied now?"

Nathan recoiled at the girl's statement and stared at her with furrowed brows.

She wasn't looking at him any longer and seemed to be genuinely upset.

His sister was normally a very quiet and emotionless girl, and she rarely let things like anger get the best of her... especially when it came to how she addressed him. He had always figured that her sisterly attachment would never change, but seeing her act like this was kind of unsettling. Moreover, the boy couldn't deny that her venomous words stung a bit. After all, she had a good point: he'd been pretty awful to her lately, and he had no right to know about her private life.

"Yeah, I'm plenty satisfied," he sneered, hiding his unease. "I wouldn't lift a hand to save you if something really happened. In fact, I _hope_ it does."

"Don't say that!" Katie whispered, subtle anger switching to fright in an instant. "Even as a joke!"

"Don't start this again," Nathan hissed, gripping her wrist and squeezing it tight. "Don't try to act like the victim, all right?"

"Is that truly what you think I'm doing?" Katie wearily asked, lifting her arm and jerking her hand out of his grasp. "Let's just set one thing straight, Nathan: if anybody has a right to feel irritable and act pissy towards other people, it's _me._ Nightmare or not, I'm going to be completely fine. All right?"

"So? Like I just said," Nathan muttered, looking down at her with angry eyes, "I wouldn't lift a..."

The boy trailed off when he saw his sister's expression: her biting words didn't really match the empty expression on her face. He blinked and stared at her emotionless eyes; then he flicked his gaze to her hand, which was clutching the bar above them. They were on a public bus, after all: the seats were taken due to the morning rush hour, so they'd had to stand. Katie's hands were shaking violently, but she didn't appear to notice. She was staring out the window again, but her violet eyes were somehow... gone.

He didn't like how empty they looked.

"Anyone home?" Nathan hesitantly called, waving a hand in front of her eyes. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"Huh?" Katie quietly asked, looking at him with a dazed expression. "Did you say something?"

"Okay, now you've got me worried," the albino boy muttered, scowling out the window. "Cut the crap and tell me what's happening to you, okay? Every time you have a nightmare, it actually becomes real in some way or another, so if you're having those dreams again, even if they're about you, I want you to tell me what you see. You're the only family I have left, Katie: I hate you, and I sure as hell haven't forgiven you for what happened to Emily, but that doesn't mean I want you to die."

For a moment, the girl merely stared at the floor of the bus with a blank expression.

"I... don't think it will escalate that far, even if something _does_ happen," Katie hesitantly lied, giving him another halfhearted smile before she shrugged her shoulders. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. I mean, the nightmares are a little... um, well, how should I put this? Surreal? I mean, since dragons, giant birds, and huge demon eyes made of fire don't exactly exist, I reckon I'm safe from crap like that. It's just... in my dreams, I keep seeing the face of this creepy blonde woman who keeps telling me that I can't go somewhere... and that, if I do, I'll... die. I think."

"That doesn't sound like a joke," Nathan muttered, giving her a dark look of dismay. "Should I be worried...?"

"No, just continue ignoring me like you always have," Katie sighed, watching her brother's face. "That's all we can really do at this point."

Nathan seemed to be genuinely disturbed by what she'd told him.

With good reason, too.

In spite of the unrealistic factors that had come into play while she'd been sleeping, she still had a terrible feeling in her stomach... and it was only growing stronger with each passing day. She didn't know why yet, but something was coming for her... fast. And whatever it was, she knew it wasn't going to end well.

That much she was sure of.

A soft sigh slipped through Katie's nose as she watched the unfamiliar scenery pass by: in this part of New York, there were pockets of neighborhoods with houses that looked exactly the same. The girl secretly loved the suburbs, but sometimes the fact that everything looked alike really _bothered_ her. Her thoughts soon drifted to the little boy she'd seen a few days ago... the one who'd vanished. It had been almost a week since that day on the bridge, but so far, nothing had really happened to prove that what he'd said was true.

Still, the vanishing act was a little weird, and she wanted to talk to Miss McKinley about it.

"We're here..." Nathan muttered, roughly elbowing her arm before he hefted his backpack. "Let's go."

"No... you go ahead; I'll be fine on my own," Kate murmured in a soft tone, trying to keep her brother away from her. "I've always been fine."

"If you say so," he grunted, sounding like he didn't care one way or another. "Later."

Katie stared at his back as he headed down the aisle and got off the bus: then she followed him, moving much more slowly with her head lowered.

"Goodbye," she mumbled quietly, slipping the long strap of her bag over her shoulder and hefting her pack. "Have a good day."

The girl's arms were hanging limply at her sides after she gently stepped off the city bus, and with an emotionless expression, she looked at the path leading to the school. She swallowed when her long white hair was slowly swept off to the side by a gentle breeze... she could already feel her throat locking up.

Like always, she felt as though this were a death sentence.

However, when she finally arrived on school grounds, Katherine instinctively realized that something was wrong: every single girl and boy standing in the area glanced up and started looking at her. Everywhere Katherine looked, there were groups of boys and girls looking straight at her: some had piercings, dyed hair, multitudes of tattoos, but all of them were wearing identical school uniforms worn with careless attitudes.

"What the hell is up with everyone today...?" Kate wondered, slowly turning her head and looking at everyone with furrowed brows. "Why are they staring at me like that?"

She didn't know why, but staring was an understatement: death glares was a much more accurate description. Despite her expressionless exterior, she could feel her heart turning cold, and an unfamiliar ringing sensation started building up behind her eyes. After a few moments of standing stock still in the middle of the sidewalk, the girl slowly began walking toward the building doors, discreetly keeping a wary eye on the people around her. However, Tiffany and her little group halted the albino before she could walk up the stairs.

"So," the blonde girl giggled, giving her a sinister expression. "I guess there's no way for you to deny that you're a witch now, is there?"

Katherine blinked and did a double take, staring at her as though she'd grown another head.

"Um, sorry?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow and staring at the girl in total confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Playing innocent won't work this time, skank," Brittany sneered, pulling a newspaper out of her purse and tapping it. "Your face is all over this thing! You can't hide the fact that you're a freak anymore!"

"I guess you must have been desperate for some positive attention, right?" Alexa drawled, leaning forward with a smirk. "Hey, girl... not judging or anything, but did you let him fuck you or something? Is that why he wrote such a nice story? "

Kate twitched and looked at her in disgust.

"Uh, what the hell are you idiots talking about?" Katie snapped, finally losing her cool. "Seriously, give me that thing."

When she snatched it out of Brittany's hands and unrolled it, the girls smirked since Katie's stoic demeanor went clean out the window within seconds. Her eyes immediately widened and her jaw tightened in shock.

On the front of the newspaper was a picture of her face: when it had been taken, she didn't exactly know, but there was a photo of her standing on the East River bridge and looking at the sky.

"See?" Alexa sneered, watching as the albino's jaw slowly went slack. "Can't hide it now, you little whore."

"What the hell?!" Katie whispered, collapsing to her knees when her legs buckled; she frantically flipped the page and started reading, eyes enormous and heart racing with disbelieving anxiety. "What the hell is this?! I never... I never gave anyone permission to do this! Who took that picture?!"

"Seriously?" Tiffany scoffed, checking her nails. "Don't try that... it's pathetic."

Kate couldn't even hear her: she was so immersed in reading what had been written that her mind had gone numb.

The headline was appalling.

 _"Teenage Girl saves a Fox News reporter using shocking psychic ability"_

"No," Kate stammered, shaking her head before she started reading. "No, no, no, no, no! NO! That creepy stalker was a _news_ reporter?!"

Feeling herself going numb, the girl frantically read through the article, trying not to panic.

 _In a shocking and somewhat unbelievable turn of events, last week we discovered that our own Fox News' reporter, Gene Hughes, was saved by a local New York teenager in a most unusual way. He claims that the girl warned him to be careful about driving through a well-known street crossing, and like any rational man, he didn't really pay attention to it... but then, in a startling turn of events, that warning actually saved his life._

 _"From what I could tell, Katherine was a highly unusual young lady... in several different ways," Gene told News Reporter, Beyonca Martinez. "When I first met her, I thought she was suicidal. I mean, she was standing on the railing surrounding the edge of the Masteria Hotel's rooftop, but at the same time... there was a part of me that thought, incredulously, that she might be an angel. I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it's true. I've never seen anyone with white hair before, and her eyes... they were like something right out of a fairy tale."_

 _When we asked Gene to recount his experiences with the teen, he claimed that she warned him about the connection between his phone and the accident. Low and behold, within ten seconds of arriving at the street crossing, his phone did indeed start ringing: Gene was so spooked that he proceeded to ignore the call, which was the key that saved his life._

 _"If I_ _had ignored the warning she'd given me and picked up_ _that_ _call," Gene tells Fox, looking at the reporters with shaken eyes, "I might not be standing here today. That girl saved my life: ten seconds after that phone rang, a runaway bus shredded across the street and crashed into a telephone pole. To think, that could have been me... it's terrifying."_

 _According to witnesses, who also saw the accident, nobody on the bus was seriously injured, but there were quite a few scrapes and bruises. We've asked Gene if he thinks this brave and somewhat unusual girl would be willing to meet with Fox News for a formal report, but as of right now, he doesn't know anything about her aside from her name._

Kate was in shock: the little color in her cheeks had completely gone white, and her eyes were blank with horror.

"What's wrong, Witch?" Tiffany asked, leaning down with a nasty little smirk. "Cat got your tongue?"

Shredding the newspaper without a word, Katie lunged to her feet and tore up the stairs.

Everyone's eyes were on her when she tore down the hall, but she was so determined to get away from the people around her that she ended up running around for ten minutes before she found the library. Once she got there, the girl slammed the doors shut and sank back down to her knees, muscles shaking violently. However, the sound of a grandmotherly chuckle couldn't even bring her spirits up.

"Why, hello, Katie," Miss McKinley called, sounding surprised. "Is something the matter?"

The girl didn't answer: she couldn't.

She was so sick of everything, so tired of being different, that she couldn't even look at the one person who'd accepted her.

"Miss... McKinley," Katherine stated shakily, slowly crawling back to her feet and finally turning around; when she looked up, the woman's smile was wiped clean and she stood up with a startled expression, since the albino girl had tears streaming down her cheeks. "I... I..."

"W-what's wrong?" the old woman stammered, leaving the desk when Kate's face scrunched up and she clutched the front of her skirt. "What happened?"

"The whole world knows I'm a freak!" the girl stated, trying to fight back the ache in her body. "T-the newspaper... I'm in the newspaper! He put me in a newspaper!"

"I know..." Miss McKinley stated soothingly, stopping in front of her and setting her weathered hands on the girl's shoulders. "I know, sweetheart, I read the paper every day! What you did doesn't make you a freak, it makes you a hero! And don't you ever forget it! So, you've got a little more to you than others... does that make you bad? Not at all! I've lived for sixty five years, child, and in this day and age... well, it's a rare thing to meet a girl as sweet and honest as you are."

"Huh?" Kate whimpered, slowly turning around and staring at her with dazed amethyst eyes. "What do you-?"

"Shhh, don't talk," the woman soothed, staring into her eyes with a warm smile. "Even if you believe that the whole school thinks you're weird, that doesn't mean it's true: for example, I think you're a sweetheart! Especially considering the environment you live in... Lord have Mercy. You'd have to be a very strong girl indeed to be able to smile at people while living with such a horrible woman."

That was what did it.

For the first time in a long time, Katherine couldn't keep her mask in place and began to cry: tears slowly welled up in her eyes and started trickling down her pale cheeks. The girl's face scrunched up even further and she let out an involuntary sob... then choked back another... but eventually, she couldn't hide it.

In that moment, she abruptly burst into tears.

Katie slowly clenched the front of her pleated skirt with shaking fists and tilted her head back, hiccuping and choking as the first wail escaped her lips.

"Come here, honey," the librarian soothed, spreading her arms. "There, there..."

Kate didn't even think: almost mechanically, she found herself stepping forward, willingly walking into the librarian's grandmotherly arms.

Miss McKinley rubbed her back and sighed when her shaking fists grasped and tightened onto the back of her floral-print dress.

"There, there," the woman murmured again. "Go ahead and let it all out."

"It hurts..." the albino choked, bawling like a child. "It hurts! It hurts! Everything... it just..."

She couldn't even finish.

Her words devolved into hysterical, raw-throated sobbing.

Veronica McKinley was one of the few who was aware that Katie had been alone not out of choice, but as a result of her differences: she had been completely alone... unloved, harassed... empty... it was no wonder she was crying. The woman couldn't do anything but rub Katherine's back, so that's exactly what she did. For ten minutes, she soothed the girl until she stopped crying.

Once she did, the old woman pulled away and patted her cheek before handing her a tissue box.

"Thank you," Katie sniffed, rubbing her puffy eyes and blowing her nose. "Please don't tell anyone that I cried, okay?"

"I won't, dear," the woman chuckled, planting a hand on her hip before she patted her graying curls. "Would you like a cup of hot cocoa before class?"

"That sounds nice," the albino mumbled, hiccuping again and rubbing her puffy eyes. "Thank you."

Still, somehow... there was a part of her that had gone completely numb.

Neither the librarian nor the student noticed that a familiar girl with long brown hair was peering through the door with a stunned expression.

However, five minutes later, the bell rang.

Kate instantly looked up and sighed, downing the last of her hot chocolate.

"I have to go now," she murmured, hiding her eyes with her hair. "Miss McKinley... thank you."

"You're very welcome," the old woman giggled, but just as Kate turned to go, she gasped. "Wait! Wait! I almost forgot!"

Katie turned around and waited, watching as the old woman dug around in her bag: after a moment, she pulled out a small wrapped box and hurried over, gently pressing it into the albino's hands. Kate stared at it in confusion, then looked up at the librarian.

"What's this?" she asked, blinking. "A gift?"

"Yes," the woman chuckled, giving her a wink. "I think it's a shame that you never wear make-up or do anything with your hair, especially since you're such a pretty girl. So, I took it upon myself to do a little research on your albinism in order to get you that. It won't irritate your skin, and its waterproof, so I truly believe its perfect for you. Think of me when you wear everything, eh? I'd love to help you apply it and do your hair up into pigtails, but you really do need to scoot! You'll be late if you don't rush!"

Kate nodded and gave a small, very rare smile of thanks before hurrying out the door and rushing to her locker. After stuffing the package inside, Kate ran to her first class and bolted inside just as the second bell rang.

When school started, Kate had to deal with even more stares than usual, and things became difficult since more people picked on her, more people talked about her, and more people stared.

But hey, this was typical for her school.

The only thing she could do now was deal with it.


	4. Chapter 3: Typical Bullies

**Chapter Three: Typical Bullies**

After two more classes had come and gone, Kate quickly ate her lunch and darted out of the cafeteria. The girl then sprinted to her fourth period classroom before it could start. However, when she zipped inside and discovered that she wasn't alone like she'd been expecting, she went rigid: Alan Smirnoff and his buddies were standing in front of her desk.

They sneered the moment they saw her tense.

"Hey, freak, is this your book?" Alan laughed, tossing an empty milk carton into the wastebasket and making his way over to her. "You didn't happen to spill anything on it, did you? Maybe while you were admiring your freakshow slot in the newspaper?"

Kate stared in mortification: the book Miss McKinley had given her was lying on her desk amongst a puddle of milk. Her lips twisted as she stared at the soggy tome, but she felt no need to respond to their antagonism and firmly locked her jaw.

They didn't deserve to hear her speak.

In fact, nobody at this school did.

"There you go with the quiet act again," Salem sighed, rolling his eyes. "You could at least act like you're upset."

Kate still didn't respond.

However, her lack of reaction sent Alan into action, and he gripped her shoulder. The girl's eyes popped open wide in surprise when he jerked her forward by the arm, but she let out a squeak when Mitchell stuck his sneaker out and tripped her before she could catch her balance: she hit the ground so hard that her teeth jolted, and she let out a muffled yelp when she bashed her elbow on a desk.

"Ow..." she croaked, rolling her sleeve up and looking at her scraped arm; she instantly winced since it was already turning purple around the edges. "Shit... if this doesn't stop bleeding by last period, I might have to go to a hospital and have it cauterized."

The moment she said it, all three boys began laughing at her.

She rarely allowed any form of emotion to break through her mask, so it was a rare treat for these guys to see her look upset. Kate rolled her sleeve back down and stared at the ground: she smoothed her face out once again, carefully putting her mask back on.

She would deal with the pain in silence: she had promised herself long ago that she wouldn't let herself be weak.

"You're so creepy!" Salem stated condescendingly, kicking her ankle; Kate bit her lip, squeezing her eyes shut as a flash of pain rocketed up her leg. "Whenever I think about how ugly you are, sometimes I throw up in my mouth: looking at your face makes me sick to my stomach."

"Yeah! With those creepy eyes and all that nasty white hair," Mitchel added, speaking with a thoughtful expression, "I'd have killed you if you were my daughter! I mean, you're so pale and small that you look half dead already, and your face is just... ugh. I'd probably feel sorry for your parents if they hadn't done the smart thing and killed themselves!"

Feeling her heart aching at the mentioning of her parents, Kate slowly began to crawl back to her feet... but before she could manage it, Alan purposely lifted his leg and stepped on her back. With a startled yip, Kate crumpled to the ground and clenched her teeth when her elbow throbbed again: it felt as though the blood was already seeping through the cloth... but she was used to pain.

She'd gotten enough of it over the years that she could handle it.

Feeling nothing, she smoothed her expression once again and retained her emotionless demeanor, pink eyes losing their sheen and becoming almost dead.

"You know, even some of the teachers have been saying you're creepy!" Alan laughed, folding his arms. "The least you could do is cry like a normal human being! I might be inclined to leave you alone if you just cry and beg me to stop."

When she still didn't respond, the boys stopped grinning and became irritated: after a few more jeers, they gave up and started kicking her. Kate instantly buried her face in her arms, tensing as the blows to her ribcage and legs sent agony rocketing through her muscles. She endured it for what seemed like hours... but in reality, only a few minutes had passed. She wouldn't let them see her tears for anything... she had to be strong... she had to endure this torture like every other torture she had gone through in the past.

However, as it turned out, she didn't need to.

The door flew open without warning and a beautiful girl walked in.

The student council president, Erika Montgomery.

"Huh? Alan?" the brunette asked in confusion, blinking at the boys when they froze. "What are you doing in here? You just told me that you were heading to class a bit earlier to do some last-minute studying since you have a huge history test coming up... but this is my class, and on top of that, who are those guys?"

"Um... hey, Erika," Alan chuckled nervously, "yeah, these are my friends and we, uh... were..."

"Were what?" Erika asked, looking him with a blank expression; however, before he could reply, she noticed the milk-covered book sitting on the desk and her eyes widened in surprise. Erika's gaze immediately flashed to the girl lying flat on the floor and bristled in shock; she hastily whirled around and thrust her head out the door. "Alicia, I need a bit of help! Hurry and go get a teacher from the break lounge! It has to be someone who can handle a problem without going overboard!"

A startled voice wafted in from the hallway.

"Just do it!" the brunette calmly called, glancing at the boys with fierce eyes. "Three boys are beating up a girl in here!"

"What the fuck, Erika?!" Alan hissed, kicking Kate in the shoulder. "This freak is a witch! Why are you narking on us over this?!"

"Oh, you did NOT just kick her!" the brunette scoffed, rolling up her sleeves with a threatening expression. "Okay, boys, unless you want _me_ to give you a butt-kicking, I suggest you get out of here right now!"

Alan and Erika glared at each other for a long, dangerously quiet moment.

Then...

"Let's go," Alan muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and slinking out the door past Erika. "We can mess with the bitch later..."

"What was that, Alan?!" Erika called, sticking her head out into the hall. "Are you _asking_ me for a beating?! I kicked your ass in elementary school, and I can definitely do it again! Don't even THINK about touching her, you creep!"

 _Ow_... Kate muttered silently, slowly sitting up and rubbing her sides. _I'm going to have a few bruises I'll need to keep an eye on._

"Hey, are you okay?" Erika asked, darting over to help her up; when she gripped her injured arm right on the elbow, the pale girl flinched in pain and smacked her hand before shakily climbing to her feet on her own. "Ow! Hey, why did you hit me? Are you all right?"

"Don't touch me," Kate muttered, breaking the stillness of the room with her voice. "I hate it here... I feel like I'm losing myself because of these people. They call me a witch and a monster, but they act more terrible than any creature I've ever heard of... they're the real monsters."

"Hey, are you okay?" Erika whispered, staring at her in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Shut up and leave me alone!" Katherine snapped, face twisting up with a serious urge to cry. "You're all the same! I... I hate everything here! I hate my home! I hate this school! I wish it would all just burn to the ground so Nathan and I can leave already!"

To keep herself from bursting into tears, she snatched her things and bolted from the room, thigh-length hair flying behind her like a cloud of silver fire. Erika watched her flee with a blank expression, not comprehending what had just happened. However, after a moment of staring at the empty doorway, she looked at her hand and twitched when she saw blood on it.

Almost immediately, her mind kicked in.

"Hey, hold on!" Erika cried, running out of the room and chasing the girl down; she finally managed to grab Kate's uninjured arm, and with a firm yank she held her back. The albino merely stood in place and refused to look at her. "Come on, don't treat me like this... I'm sorry, okay? Alan has always been a jerk, even back when he was a little kid, but I'm really not like him. Look, if you want to be left alone, that's cool... but as the student council President, I can't let an injured student go without tending to them."

"If you go away immediately afterwards... fine," Kate muttered, not meeting her eyes. "I really want to be alone right now."

Several minutes later, the pale girl was involuntarily sitting in the girl's bathroom while Erika cleaned her arm with a cotton swab.

"I don't think the bleeding was as bad as you thought," the brunette murmured, eying her scraped arm with a confused demeanor before she gently applied some gauze. "There you go... hopefully you'll be good as new by tomorrow."

"Thank you for helping me," Kate stated calmly, keeping her face blank, "but I can take it from here."

"You can stop with the act," the brunette retorted, slowly turning around and pressing her carefully dried book into her hands. "I already know it's fake... I've been watching you and your brother ever since the two of you transferred here, Kate. People are mean to you because they don't know you, and mostly because you never stand up for yourself! You never speak up or try prove them wrong! Instead of doing anything useful, you go to a new classroom after school and cry until the gates close! Girl, you need to take a stand!"

Kate's head snapped up and she stared at Erika with wide eyes, not even realizing that her mask had slipped off due to the shock coursing through her.

"Who told you about that?" the albino whispered, staring at the brunette with a stunned expression. "Who told you?!"

"Nobody told me anything," Erika irritably retorted, face pulling into a deep frown. "I have a few after-school curricular activities since I'm the Student Council Prez, remember? On top of that... my brother is the janitor, so I help him clean up the school from time to time. On your second day here, I was cleaning up Miss Kensington's classroom when you caught my attention. I swear, I've never been so shocked."

"So what?!" Katie demanded, glaring at her with angry eyes. "The rumors about me are true, so why didn't you take everyone else's side?"

"Because judging a person based on gossip is stupid, that's why," Erika retorted, looking slightly offended. "Sure, I've heard all the rumors about you from my friends, and everyone I talk to says you're creepy and dark... but the first time I ever saw you, nothing I'd heard matched what my own two eyes told me."

"What did you see?" Kate hissed. "Tell me!"

"Well, you were sitting on one of the desks by the window and reading a book," Erika stated simply, folding her arms. "Personally, I don't think you look scary at all. You're just a little different... but on the day I first saw you, I thought you were glowing. You were just that bright. I stood there for a while and watched you read, but then... all of a sudden you buried your face in your knees. It took me ten minutes to realize you were crying."

"And?" Kate demanded, amethyst eyes sharpening into frigid gemstones. "Why did you sit there and watch me cry?"

"Look, whether you realize it or not, I wanted to do something to make you stop crying," Erika retorted, looking more than a little frustrated by her hostility. "I didn't know what to do, though, especially since I didn't know you back then! I've been looking out for you and your brother ever since that day, so stop interrogating me and just... trust me a bit!"

Kate stared at her with a blank expression, but uncertainty did flit across her pale face.

For several moments, the albino merely stared at Erika with an indecisive expression. A part of her wanted to trust the girl, but another part of her didn't want to be anywhere near her: her current reputation as a witch had stemmed from a similar situation.

To her, the word 'Trust' was synonymous with 'Betrayal.'

"If you ever want to talk, here's my phone number," Erika finally sighed, handing the girl a slip of paper. "I'll be willing to listen to you, and I promise I'll stick up for you when people are being horrid, okay? We're going to get rid of all the rumors about you, I promise!"

The albino girl stood there for a long moment, opening and closing her mouth in absolute shock.

For the first time since she'd joined Ivy Ridge Academy, someone had actually said something that wasn't insulting, hostile, or extraordinarily unfriendly. She stared at the pretty brunette with a baffled expression on her face... but then she nodded and left the room with her book in hand. She wouldn't give into the urge to break down just yet: she would wait, especially since she didn't trust Erika's motives.

Even so, the rest of the day was just as horrible... so much, in fact, that when classes finally ended, the girl was almost grateful to be going home. After grabbing her things from her locker, Katie left the school and walked back to her current residence alone, since Nathan had gone home with his best friend, Seth. With good reason, too, since apparently, the Social Worker had called in and said she couldn't make it.

Toni's rages alone would be something to behold.

After making it back to the house and walking up the porch stairs, she slowly lifted her hand and gripped the doorknob, twisting it gently.

The moment she opened the front door, light poured into a pitch-black house.

Katie tiptoed through the dark hallway, trying to keep herself as silent as possible: the place smelled of beer and cigar smoke, which meant Toni was in her abusive mode again. Just as Kate was taking a cautious step around the hall corner, she accidentally stepped on a shard of broken glass and the soft crunching sound caused an avalanche of screeches to resound through the entire house.

Kate winced and wondered how the woman could have possibly heard it.

"Who the fuck is crashing around up here?" Toni shrieked, making Kate flinch. "Who broke into my house?!"

"It's just me," Kate called back, voice trembling so badly that it made her feel sick with herself. "I'm back."

It was cold inside the house, as if the sunny warmth of the afternoon had refused to enter the darkened area.

Toni's silhouette suddenly filled the doorway, blocking out the hallway light so abruptly that Katie actually let out a squeak of surprise.

The girl could see the woman's wide, bloodshot eyes even in this kind of darkness: they were two glittering green orbs full of malice and disgust. Kate froze and struggled to escape from the hatred in her foster mother's eyes, but it felt like she was drowning in darkness. It was a darkness so deep that she couldn't help but be pulled under the surface.

She could feel the hatred emanating from the woman's soul just by looking at her irises.

Kate swallowed and returned her attention to Toni, staring into those jade green pools as fear involuntarily rose up her throat.

She could never summon the courage she needed to face her foster mother.

Part of the reason was the fact that the woman had never wanted her or her brother in the first place: the government had literally forced the Sanders twins upon her household. The woman never tried to be nice; she never acted as though she cared; she always made it clear that the twins weren't wanted and gave them the cold shoulder. That, or she got drunk and used her inebriated state to vent her frustrations.

Usually by abusing Kate.

Nathan had never been hit more than once since he was strong enough and _angry_ enough to hit back.

He wouldn't hesitate to hurt Toni just as much as she hurt him.

When she took a heavy step forward, Kate took a tiny step back.

"I should have known," Toni sneered, soft lips curling in disgust. "Everything came crumbling down when you and your brother came into this house. Those disgusting eyes that look out of your mother's face... I grew up with your mother, you know: she lived about two miles away from here, and I actively hated her. She was better at everything, she always had a pack of tarot cards in her pocket, and she married a gorgeous man who treated her like a queen. I honestly should be thanking you."

 _Don't say it,_ Kate pleaded silently, balling her hands into fists. _Please, Toni... don't say it again._

"After all, you were the one who killed them," the woman chuckled nastily, making the albino girl flinch. "Right, you little freak?"

Kate remained silent, hoping if she didn't speak then Toni would go away.

The woman had repeated this particular speech so many times before that the girl actually knew it by heart.

Even though it had been an accident, Kate really had killed her parents, albeit indirectly: her mother had forgotten to turn the stove off after making dinner one evening, and the house had caught fire. Nathan hadn't been home since he'd been on a sleepover, but Katherine had been quietly sleeping upstairs. Both of her parents had been killed trying to get to her.

Toni's hands were suddenly on her shoulders, forcing her against the wall.

"Are you listening to me, bitch?" she growled, looking into Kate's eyes. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

"Stop it, Toni," Kate whispered, shaking her head. "Stop..."

"Don't look at me with those disgusting eyes!" Toni screeched, smacking Kate in the face. "Those aren't your mother's eyes! Those aren't the eyes of the woman I grew up with! Those are your father's eyes! Those are the eyes of a nasty demon who took my best friend away from me! I hope that bastard is burning in hell! Give her back, you murderer!"

Kate recoiled away from the woman's hand and squeezed her eyes even tighter.

She wished the woman would simply leave her alone, but her words about her eyes were true.

Kate turned away, keeping her eyes shut tight so the woman wouldn't hit her again.

A jarring impact on her cheek sent pain rocketing into her skull, but the woman shoved Kate once more and began muttering under her breath.

When Toni stormed into the living room, the small-boned albino girl let out a shuddering breath of relief and pressed a hand to her burning cheek, slowly forcing herself to walk up the stairs into her room. Judging by how the blow was both stinging and aching beneath the skin, she knew that it might be just a tad bit bruised by the next morning.

It wouldn't be bad enough for a hospital visit, though, hopefully.

Throwing her bag onto the floor, Kate turned on her light and faced the mirror with uncertainty.

Her cheek was still burning unpleasantly with the impact of her foster mother's hand, but it wasn't as bad as the other times or even the other foster families. She'd definitely had worse than this... in fact, she was inclined to say that this was the best residence so far. There had been times when the twins had been beaten and starved to the point of death. Kate was simply glad that Toni was easy with her blows.

The woman knew how easy a bruise could kill her because of her condition, so at least she tried to be gentle...

Kate sighed and took off her uniform, gently hanging it up; after putting on a baggy sweater and a simple pair of jeans, she curled up on her bed and pulled out the book Miss McKinley had given her. Aside from a large stain on the front, the pages within were undamaged, for which she was extremely grateful. After a moment, she opened it and began to read, gently flipping through the pages.

She sat there for several hours, turning through the pages of her book, until the sun began to go down.

Even after that, she kept reading... continuously searching for an answer to her nightmares.

However, it wasn't until a flash of lightning lit up her room that she had a strange vision.

 _Fire... fire that almost seemed to blink._

She shivered, then closed the book and set it on her bed.

After a moment, she noticed the package Miss McKinley had given her and blinked, wondering what was really inside. Tilting her head, Katherine pulled it over and unwrapped it with curious eyes, but her breath caught when she found herself staring at a three-hundred dollar hair and makeup kit for... people with albinism?

"She bought this for me with her own money?" Kate wondered aloud, looking at the contents in awe. "No way... it even has differently-toned hair extensions, a hairband, eyebrow toner, and... eyelash ink?! No way! That stuff is almost impossible to find!"

Katie stared at the kit with stunned eyes, but after a moment she sighed and smiled a little.

Slowly getting to her feet, she grabbed her old pink pajamas as well as the make-up kit and headed over to the bathroom to take a shower.

Shedding her clothes, the girl turned the water on and waited until it was warm to hop in: once she'd finished washing and conditioning her hair, Kate rinsed herself free of the soap and merely stood under the water, being extremely careful to keep it away from her gauze-covered elbow. Then she got out and wrapped a towel around her chest. Feeling refreshed, she used the blow-dryer sitting on the counter to dry her hair, being mindful to keep the setting on low so it wouldn't damage her tresses.

Then, once everything was done, she toweled herself off and pulled her pajamas on before grabbing the make-up kit.

Wiping a small circle of condensation off the mirror, she examined her bruises with a keen eye, but fortunately for her, none of them seemed to be swelling up.

Then she looked at her face.

And stared.

 _Toni's right about one thing..._ Kate thought sadly, touching her long silver hair as she looked in the mirror. _I look almost exactly like my mom, but I have my father's eyes... sort of._

The albino girl had the same shimmering white hair, the same pearly skin, the same overly-plump lips, and the same fragile build as her mother... but unlike the woman who had given birth to her, Kate's height didn't want to extend over five feet.

However, the biggest difference between the two of them was the shape of their eyes: her mother's eyes had been exotic and slightly upturned at the far edges, and in hue they had been a dark shade of pink. Kate's eyes were very big, round, and angled towards the ground at the edges.

They were so light in color that they seemed to reflect all forms of luminescence like mirrors... mirrors, it should be noted, that constantly shifted back and forth in hue from light pink to a silvery violet.

Shaking her head, Katherine averted her eyes and grabbed the eyelash ink, then leaned forward and began to apply it to herself. The ink by itself went for about a hundred bucks even though it wasn't waterproof and only lasted a few days.

Still, it was a necessity for any albino, because it gave off just one semblance of physical normalcy that people like her and Nathan constantly missed out on. She reminded herself to share it with him after she finished applying it.

After taking the time to fan the ink dry, the girl applied it to her lower lashes as well and sighed, repeating the fanning process.

Once that was finished, she examined herself in the mirror and blinked, feeling a little relieved: now that her eyelashes were black, like everyone else's, her appearance seemed a little less strange. Then she recalled Miss McKinley's statement about her hair and pulled on a long strand of it. Pensively, she grabbed her brush and gently parted her hair down the middle, feeling a little uncomfortable about what she was planning on doing.

It only took a few minutes to get right, and by the time she was done, Katherine's hair had been tied into pigtails that she carefully draped over her shoulders.

Since her hair was so long, however, the twin-tails actually stopped just below her hips.

After a moment of staring at her reflection, the girl set the makeup kit under the sink and buttoned up the front of her pajama shirt, heading for the bathroom door.

It wasn't until after she was already in the hallway that she spotted him out of the corner of her eye.

Turning her head just as a flash of lightning lit up his silhouette, Katherine stiffened when she saw Toni's deadbeat boyfriend, AJ, standing in the center of the hallway with his hands planted against the walls on either side of him. She instantly felt her heart rise up her throat, since he only bothered with her and Nathan when he was looking for trouble. Instantly whirling around, the girl bolted for her bedroom, but he chased after her: before she could slam the door, he put his foot inside it and started reaching for her.

"Stop!" Kate cried, face screwing up with fright when he gripped the front of her shirt. "Hey! Let go of me!"

"Shut up!" he snarled, jerking on the front of her shirt. "I heard you got in trouble today, so Toni definitely won't care if I have a bit of fun."

When the first three buttons popped off her shirt, her eyes widened and she did the unthinkable.

She fought back.

Lunging at him with an angry shriek, she clawed his face and attempted to slam the door, but he merely kicked it open and violently shoved her to the ground. Hulking above her, he glared down in rage with bloodshot eyes.

"You ever try something like that again," he hissed, bending down and clutching her shirt. "I'll fucking kill you, bitch."

With that, he slapped her in the face and walked out, leaving behind a shivering girl who merely curled up into a little ball and held herself.

Kate closed her eyes and fought back tears: she wanted things to go back to the way they used to be, before her mother and father had died... before Emily had died, too... but time and fate were cruel realities, and she was all alone in a hostile world. She had given up hope on being loved by other people long ago... she had given up on a future where life could possibly be happy... she had turned her back on the conniving faces of humanity, for they had done nothing but hurt her. She had promised herself not to trust anyone, ever again.

Because, after all... who could ever love a freak?


	5. Chapter 4: Wakeful Premonition

**Author's Note:** **(THIS IS A BIT LONG)** _Before I get into the next chapter, I desire to address something that's been bothering me a little. I've been getting a few messages and comments lately saying that identical twins can't be opposite genders, but I'd like to point out that this isn't actually true._

 _I have an identical twin sister despite being a boy. DNA doesn't lie, after all._

 _Don't believe me? Fine, DON'T believe me! Believe National Geographic. The NatGeo special, "In the Womb: Multiples" explains everything. And the video excerpt from their site says:_

 _"Identical twins are almost always the same sex, but surprisingly there are a tiny number of boy-girl monozygotic twins. They result from an egg that contains an unusual mixture of sex chromosomes, not the usual XX for a girl, and XY for a boy. Occasionally an egg contains three sex chromes, two X's and a Y. But if the egg divides to produce monozygotic twins, a chromosome may be lost in the process, leaving one embryo with a girl's XX combination, and her monozygotic twin as an XY boy."_

 _This can also happen when the egg is fertilized with the male chromosome, making an XY egg, that splits into two, with one of the embryos dropping the Y, making her an XO girl, resulting in Turner's Syndrome. Identical twins start off as one egg that splits, but the two separate embryos don't always develop identically. More and more experts are beginning to refer to these twins as monozygotic twins instead of as identical twins._

 _There are only a few documented cases in history of boy-girl identical twins - my sister and I are actually AMONG those documented cases, just saying, it was a big deal for our family - so it's not surprising most people have never heard of it. Just wanted to clarify that while it is rare, it does indeed happen, as we are living proof. I'll even send a photo of my sister and I to anyone who wants confirmation, lol._

 _We're identical to the point where people ALWAYS mistake me as a girl. (Neither of us has any masculinity, unfortunately, so I got screwed big time._ _Go ahead, laugh it up, I'm used to it. T_T)_

 _Anyway, sorry for the long explanation, but I felt it was necessary... now, I hope you enjoy this chapter!_

* * *

 **Chapter Four: Wakeful Premonition**

 _There was no darkness this time... there wasn't a cellar with the scent of blood... there wasn't even an abyss full of stars._

 _However, compared to where she was right now, any of those would have been more preferable._

 _Katherine was somehow standing frozen with terror on top of an enormous tower, a structure that had been built so high that it could have put both of the fallen World Trade Centers to shame: below her was a chasm of nearly six thousand stories worth of empty air, and above her was a sky that was frothing with volcanic ash. The wind was tearing at her old nightgown, and her long hair was flying in every direction. She couldn't move... if she moved, the burning eye that was flicking around in the distance would see her._

 _It would find her again._

 _"Somebody..." Kate whimpered, fighting to keep its evil heat off of her by remaining still. "Help me..."_

 _The moment she said it, a flash of light seared into her retinas and a two-tailed comet sailed overhead._

 _The comet was white and red, but she could sense that it was emanating an ancient evil._

 _However, at the same time... it was flickering with such dark brilliance that she had trouble tearing her eyes away from it. Blazing through the dark sky and shredding the volcanic clouds as it passed, the two-tailed comet launched itself straight for a distant moon that looked_ _much_ _larger than the one she was used to seeing. In a fiery radiance, it slammed into the surface... but shockingly, there was no sound: nothing but silence followed the impact and not even a single stone on the moon's surface budged._

 _It was as if the comet itself were passing through the celestial_ _object_ _the way light passes through glass._

 _Kate tried to reach out and touch the ghostly flames licking from the comet's tail, but the moment she moved, the eye flicked in her direction and her silver hair started billowing around much more slowly. Actually, everything moved more slowly... even the chilling wind, which had somehow become scorching hot. Katie stood there with horrified eyes, watching as the ball of fire seemed to loom closer: it was as if the tower she was standing on had started zooming in on it._

 _"NO!" Kate screeched, lifting her hand and slowly whirling around; every step from her bare feet seemed to take an eternity, and she started crying as she ran across the tower. "HELP! SOMEONE, HELP ME!"_

 _However, there wasn't a way to get off the structure: she was trapped at the top of it._

 _When she collapsed to her knees, a glowing red mark began to snake around her torso from her back, trickling over her pearly skin like blood. The red made its way down her arms and wrists, then around her throat, burning as it went. The girl didn't notice how much danger she was in until she looked down at herself: the eye's gaze had latched onto a spot between her ribs, where a black sword had been buried in her flesh. The redness swirled into the gashes on her arms, neck, and collarbone._

 _Then her skin began to peel and the pink flesh underneath became hot._

 _"OOWWWW! HELP ME!" Kate cried, lifting her arms to the stars above for assistance. "PLEASE! SOMEONE!"_

 _No one would come to save her, though... and she realized with horror that she was completely alone: all of these pale and unforgiving stars didn't care about her existence. The girl's vision tunneled as the red glow leaked into her eyes, blurring her sight into colors that resembled a shimmering gasoline rainbow. Swirling round and round in that pool of pain was a screaming girl who would die completely alone... alone, in pain, and all but forgotten by the world. Just like Emily... just like her parents._

 _"Help..." she whimpered, closing her eyes as her ears filled with a rushing noise. "Someone, please! Help me!"_

 _"Who would want to help you?" her brother whispered, appearing beside her with a flash. "Isn't it your fault that our sister died? Isn't it your fault that our parents burned to their deaths? Everyone's always saving you, Kate, but when someone calls for help, you cower like a little rabbit. You've caused the death of everyone I've ever loved, so why would anybody come to save you? You're a coward... and that's why you'll die alone. And nobody will care."_

 _"STOP IT!" the girl wailed, choking as the red started pouring down her throat. "NATHAN, HELP ME!"_

 _Suddenly, a screeching buzz echoed within her head, blurring the image of her brother's sneer._

 _She desperately struggled to breathe, stretching out her hand to his laughing silhouette as her vision began to disintegrate._

"-anders?" a voice called.

 _"Nate, please!" Kate wailed, letting out a cry when her world faded and the buzzing took over her senses. "Help me!"_

"Miss Sanders, wake up!" somebody angrily shouted, snapping the small girl out of her nightmare. Her head instantly snapped up and she choked, eyes blank and pupils dilated. "Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you that there is no sleeping in my class?"

Totally unable to process what was happening, she faced her teacher's glare.

Stared blankly for a solid ten seconds without her brain being connected.

"Huh?" Kate finally asked, finally blinking her exhaustion back when the snickers rose up around her. "Oh... class... um, yes, Ma'am, I'll do my best... I'm sorry."

"Finish your work," the woman snapped, sweeping forward. "Or don't bother coming to class at all."

"Eh... wait... Ma'am, I already finished the work you handed out," Kate groggily explained, rubbing her eyes and poking around in her desk. "I never meant to fall asleep... I set my head down since it was hurting a little. I must have dozed off. Sorry."

"Regardless of your _intentions,_ you cannot sleep in class!" Mrs. Kingsford rapped out. "Are we clear?"

"Yes Ma'am," Kate mumbled, wishing she could use her bangs to hide her eyes. "I'm... I'm sorry."

"Very well," Mrs. Kingsford sighed, straightening up and pointing to the board imperiously. "Now, since you're obviously awake, tell the class the answer to my question. After all, if you actually did the work, you _should_ know it. It was on the paper after all."

Kate's eyes darted over the problem; then, after flipping through her notebook, she found her finished work and groggily read the answer. She shot a quick glance at Mrs Kingsford after she was done, but her teacher appeared far from satisfied. The woman glared at her for a long moment, then she swept away, rapping her ruler on tables to wake students up. Kate instantly sank into her chair with a soft sigh.

She hated being the center of attention, and personally, her teacher was acting a little ridiculous since she was practically the only person in class who really ever bothered to do her homework. Then again... it wasn't actually a secret that her devotion to her studies was the reason all of her teachers were so strict with her.

According to her councilor, Mr. Ricardi, Kate and her brother were supposedly among the only twelve freshmen in their entire school who actually had a shot at not being _homeless_ in the future. She had once bluntly asked him if her teachers were acting racist because of her odd pigmentation.

Not that anyone could blame her for asking: they were all extremely mean to her during the few moments she actually slipped up, but they blatantly ignored the other students when they slipped up all the time.

Her teachers were harsher with her than others.

When the bell finally rang, the whole class erupted into a flurry of action.

Kate allowed herself to be pulled along by the stream of students to the cafeteria, listening to the swirl of gossip and the loud teasing with a dazed expression. She was still feeling totally off center since her nightmares were making it impossible for her to sleep normally, and she couldn't shake off the feeling that something horrible was going to happen.

She didn't know why, of course, but the feeling in her gut was still growing stronger.

When somebody unexpectedly elbowed her in the side and smashed her against a locker, she let out a wheeze of pain that was lost in the chatter. Ever since the day the newspaper article about the man she'd somehow saved had spread, things like this had been happening every single day.

Just yesterday, in fact, someone had shredded the skirt of her uniform during gym class.

She'd been forced to wear her sweaty gym clothes for the rest of the afternoon.

Normally, something as simple as being elbowed and roughly pushed to the side wouldn't hurt, but she was already bruised due to her escapades with Toni and AJ. She stood against the locker for a moment, taking deep breaths, but when the pain had faded enough for her to stand upright, Kate continued on her way.

After she made it to the cafeteria, she quickly joined the line and grabbed nothing but a carton of juice.

She was eager to remove herself from the jostling crowd.

Large groups of people made her uncomfortable because of how much she stood out.

Not to mention, wearing school uniforms actually exacerbated her bullying situation.

In an environment where people wore the same clothes, everyone tended to look harder at physical features such as hair color, hair length, eye color, height, body type, and body posture. Part of the reason Kate felt so uncomfortable around her peers was because her long white hair and odd coloring was more recognizable.

In a sea of faces that only saw faces, hers and her brothers' definitely stood out.

Kate hastily headed for the doors, planning on leaving... but she didn't make it in time.

The bane of her existence had unfortunately spotted her and managed to stop her before she got there.

"Well, well, well! Look who it is!" Alan sneered, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her around. "The Little Witch decided to join us for lunch! And look here! It seems she decided to go for a new look!"

"How'd she make her eyelashes dark like that?" Salem quipped, quirking an eyebrow as he examined her face. "And seriously, what the hell is up with her hair? Pigtails? Really? I haven't seen those on a girl since kindergarten!"

Kate scowled before she could stop herself.

Truth be told, she had gotten up earlier than usual just to try putting on just a little bit of makeup and switching up her hairstyle. She'd even tied her favorite black ribbon onto the hairband that Miss McKinley had given her, but since it had been nearly impossible to do anything with her Asian-style square-cut bangs, she'd simply used the hairpiece to pin them back and out of sight.

The extensions had come in handy for the false side-bangs she was sporting.

Miss McKinley had been over the moon when she'd walked in that morning all dolled up for once.

In fact, she was probably still grinning, even now.

"Can I help you?" Kate asked in a stoic voice, struggling to keep her emotions hidden. "I'd like to use the door."

"Actually, for once, you can!" Alan snorted with a grin, smashing his hand against the wall beside her head and leaning close to her face. "We heard something really interesting yesterday. Is it true that your brother is dating Erika Montgomery?"

Kate stared at him for a full ten seconds, not comprehending the question.

"Did you just ask me," she deadpanned, "if Nate is dating... the student council president?"

"Well, obviously, since someone saw the two of them making out yesterday," Salem scoffed. "Sheesh, I guess even your own brother hates you if he won't even tell you about the girls he's fooled around with."

"We just never thought Erika would be one of them," Mitchell groused. "Who would have thought she'd kiss such a nasty freak?"

Kate flinched and looked down at the ground in disbelief.

She swallowed as the events from the previous week came back to her: she'd definitely seen her brother holding hands with a brunette, and Erika _was_ the only girl in their school with waist-length brown hair... but did that really mean the two of them were dating each other?

It was pretty unbelievable... but then again, so was the fact that Nate had smiled.

"You're... mistaken," Kate murmured, struggling to retain her composure when she realized that everybody around them was listening. "I don't really know who Nathaniel likes, and he's never told me if he has a girlfriend... but he definitely wouldn't fool around with more than one person, if with anybody at all. He's not that kind of guy, so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop making assumptions about him."

Erika was one of the most well-liked girls in the entire school.

If Nate was dating her, he deserved that happiness, so she would cover for him.

Even if it meant turning herself into a target to divert their eyes from him.

"Erika wouldn't even touch an ugly freak like your brother, let alone kiss him!" Mitchell scoffed, blocking her path when she turned to walk away. "He probably forced himself on her! You'd better tell your bro to stay away from Erika, otherwise we might hurt him."

The moment he said it, Kate actually startled everyone by letting out a genuine laugh.

Even herself, ironically.

"Really?" she eagerly asked, speaking in a pleasant tone. "Please, go ahead! Hurt him!"

Dead silence reigned free when she said it, and for some reason, Alan's eyes darkened.

"That's fucked up," he muttered, leaning down close to her face. "You saying you don't give a shit about what we do to your brother?"

"I didn't say that at all," Kate sweetly told him, smirking in a grim manner. "It's more like I'm not worried."

"What?" Alan growled, narrowing his eyes. "Why?"

"Because my brother is dangerous," Kate said simply, folding her arms. "He's also pretty mean-tempered and vengeful."

Alan's eyes glimmered and his face twisted.

"So you're telling us to bully him?"

The question was spoken low, with an odd twinge of dislike that she didn't understand.

"Yes," Kate said simply, giving him her most frigid expression, "because I know for a fact if you do, you'll end up exactly like the last person. In the hospital with sixteen busted ribs, a broken arm, and a fractured face."

When Alan's mouth fell open in shock, Kate gave him a coy salute and tried to walk around Mitchell.

She had only taken two steps when Alan unexpectedly shoved her and she went stumbling.

However, she had only taken two steps when the boy suddenly shoved her and she went stumbling; just when she thought she would crash face-first into the door, it opened wide and she smacked into a soft body instead. The collision sent both her AND the person she'd smacked falling to the ground.

Her juice went skidding across the floor.

"Ow!" a familiar voice exclaimed, making Kate blink and look up. "What the heck?!"

Erika Montgomery... of all people to have crashed into, it had to have been her.

"Erika," Mitchell stuttered, face going extremely pale. "Hey, are you okay?"

The Student Council President rubbed her chest and looked at Kate, who was rubbing her nose with a scowl.

After a second, Erika stood up and straightened her blazer, dusting her knee-length skirt off.

"What's going on here?" she demanded in a low voice, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion when she noticed that Kate was shivering violently. "Okay... I really don't like what I'm seeing. You guys weren't picking on Katie, were you? What's going on?"

Alan and his friends stumbled over their words as they tried to come up with a good explanation.

Far in the corner of the cafeteria, Nathan was watching with careful eyes and a grim expression.

"Well, uh... it was just... a joke!" Alan finally spluttered, folding his arms in a nervous manner. "That's all it was!"

Kate stared at them in disbelief.

"Ha ha..." she grumbled, rubbing her eyes. "Leave me alone."

Erika turned to look at her with an impassive expression that made her entire body prickle.

She was staring with such an intense mixture of curiosity, suspicion, annoyance... and worry?

"Huh, some joke it must have been if it knocked both of us over," Erika finally snipped, glancing at Alan with a slight glare. "Don't lie to me. If you continue harassing her, I _will_ write you up. Stop. This whole thing is going too far."

"W-what?!" Alan hissed, clenching his fists in rage. "You can't be serious!"

"I am!" Erika growled, sapphire eyes flashing. "Shut up and get out of here. You're pissing me off."

The boys obeyed in an instant, backing away from the cafeteria doors and heading to their regular table the second she gave the command. When the girl turned her eyes on Kate, the small girl flinched and looked at the ground with both of her shoulders hunched and her knees shaking violently. She jumped when the brunette unexpectedly bent over and held out a hand: for several moments, she merely stared at it.

"It's just a hand," Erika murmured, smiling a little awkwardly. "Come on... take it already."

"Uh... thanks," Kate whispered, purposely avoiding her gaze. "You really shouldn't come anywhere me, though... people will... start to bully you."

Erika snorted and stared at her with furrowed brows.

"Bullying doesn't scare me, and I do what I want, regardless of what other people think," the blue-eyed girl muttered, straightening her tie and sashaying off with a wave. "See you later, Kate. Don't be late to class."

Feeling edgy, Kate grabbed her juice and left the cafeteria, heading down the hall towards her next class.

However, when she rounded the corner, she froze mid-step and the hair on her neck stood on end.

Eyes widening and mouth dropping open, she could only stare at the long hallway in total shock.

All of the light bulbs in the ceiling were broken and the rest were flickering weakly.

It looked like some sort of bomb had gone off.

"W-what the hell?" Kate whispered, staring at the decimated hallway in shock. "Oh, my God! Help! Someone!"

Her voice couldn't even rise above a squeak.

All of the windows in the corridor had been blown in, and all of the glass windows resting in the classroom doors were either cracked or broken. Some of them were lying ajar or completely unhinged, and huge holes lined the ceiling all over the place; below the gaping openings, enormous piles of debris coated the ground.

There was even a spot near the end of the hall that had collapsed into the building.

But as she stood there, her breathing quickened.

Goosebumps rose on her arms and prickled down her spine in a slow, cold wave.

She stood there, frozen by some force she couldn't identify, and watched as nine hooded figures slowly came into view from the stairwell at the end of the hall. She watched, heart thumping up her throat as they turned and began to move towards her, gliding across the ground. The tattered black robes they were wearing flowed weightlessly around their shadowed bodies.

They looked almost those freakish monsters from the Harry Potter movie she'd seen the other day.

What were they called... Dementors?

But dementors weren't real, and neither was Harry Potter.

 _What the hell... am I seeing?_ she wondered, watching in sheer terror as the figures flickered like an old movie and somehow popped up a bit closer; her heart jumped when it happened again, the flickering apparitions practically teleporting their way across the hall towards her like something clean out of The Ring.

Her ears began to ring when the figure closest to her pulled something out of its robe and loomed above her.

Her heart flew up her throat and she watched, unable to move, as a crooked blade was held above her head.

But before the hooded man's arm could come down, the decimated hallway and the figures in black started rippling like a mirage. The next time she blinked, the school had unexpectedly fixed itself, returning to normal with no warning whatsoever. Kate's eyes widened even further and she frantically rubbed them.

Shivering madly, drenched in cold sweat, she gawked at the now-inviting classroom doors in disbelief.

The hooded figures were gone.

 _"What the hell?!"_ she whispered, panic rising up her throat; she turned full circle, on the verge of going hysterical. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

It didn't make sense.

Until she remembered what she was capable of.

Her entire body went cold from the inside out.

 _No... it can't be,_ Kate silently told herself, heart speeding up with fear. _Nothing like what I just saw could ever happen at school. It's not possible. There are laws and stuff, regulations... it's impossible. Right?_

She didn't know... nor did she want to.

Frantically trying to pretend that she hadn't seen what she'd seen, Katie whirled around and bolted towards her classroom. She skidded around a corner and sprinted past a few lingering students, but when she finally made it to her own hallway, she slid to a stop.

Alan and his cronies were standing in front of the door, obviously waiting for her to come running for the classroom. It was so predictable that she should have been expecting it: she was rarely late since she hated being scolded by the teacher.

"There she is!" Salem cried, spotting her and pointing down the hall. "She's right there!"

Alan's dark eyes landed on her, freezing her solid.

When he swept toward her, moving with his shoulders up and his head lowered, her heart skipped a beat.

He looked pissed.

Probably because Erika had not only interfered, but threatened him on top of it.

And judging by that glare, he was going to take it out on her.

Before she could figure out what, exactly, she was doing... Kate turned on her heel and bolted down the hallway. With her fists pumping and her legs flying, she ran, not understanding why she was so afraid. It must have been the look in his eyes. The glare she saw there reminded her of AJ when he got in a mood.

But escape was not to be had.

He chased her down like a cheetah after a gazelle.

And he caught her.

She let out a yelp when he shoved her from behind, making her lose her balance and fly forward. She hit the ground and went skidding across the tiles on her belly, then smacked into the lockers. When she attempted to get back up, however, Alan unexpectedly smacked into her with a grunt and knocked her down again.

She realized that he had most likely overbalanced and fallen down as well.

That wasn't the problem, however... the problem was that he rolled on top of her.

"Hey!" Kate cried, struggling to get free when he straddled her waist. "Get off me!"

When she tried to hit him, he gripped her wrists and pinned them down.

"Got you," he muttered, panting slightly; when she shivered, he grinned at her. "You're pretty fast."

"Get off me," Kate weakly ordered, face contorting as she struggled to lift her arms. "Get off of me!"

"Nah, I'm too comfortable sitting right here," Alan shot back, closing his eyes and trying to catch his breath

He was acting exceedingly weird today.

Not just here, but earlier, too.

His facial reaction to her comment about her brother was a big sign that something was off.

Alan had been picking on her since her second year of middle school, so she was all too familiar with his tactics and the way he operated. He was a total backstreet kind of guy, the sort of New Yorker who skipped school, wore leather biker jackets and wife beaters, and catcalled women on the sidewalk.

But, despite being a total asshole and having such a nasty personality, he was extremely handsome.

With his strong jaw, angular nose, jet black hair, and exotic dark brown eyes, he actually had a very roguish face that might have had potential for big-time modeling if he hadn't been attending one of the top ten worst schools in the entire country. And somehow, even with that nasty personality of his, he was popular.

Probably even more so than Erika.

He was the guy that all the girls wanted to date. The guy that all the other boys wanted to be friends with. But he never gave most girls a second glance, and he only ever hung out with Salem and Mitchel.

She'd never understood why he'd always targeted her, out of every possible person to bully.

Then again, hurt people were the ones who hurt people.

And the sad truth about Ivy Ridge Academy was that every student who walked these halls came from a bad background. It didn't matter who they were: each student had either been orphaned, were juvenile delinquents, or their families were so poor that the government had been forced to step in and completely sponsor their education. It was the biggest reason why Kate never really responded to her antagonists.

Everyone was in a shit situation.

But this... this was different.

Alan had never acted this way before.

He'd never gotten this physical.

Sure, he'd pushed her, and he'd tripped her, and he'd gotten in her face a few times... but he'd never actually put his hands on her before. And truth be told, it scared her a little, because she didn't know what to expect.

He already did his best to hurt her without actually doing the hurting himself, and he usually succeeded.

She was afraid of what he could do if he were actually trying.

Several students started laughing when she squirmed a little, struggling to move her wrists.

"Get off," she shakily commanded, swallowing the lump in her throat when he leered at her. "Now."

"No way, freak," he growled, leaning close to her face with his thick eyebrows furrowed; she swallowed and stared at him silently. "I'm going to move my hand now, and when I do, you'd better not even twitch. If you try anything, I'll make your life living hell from here on out."

She shivered at the blatant threat in his eyes.

But when he lifted his left arm from her wrist, she didn't move: her hands trembled, but she didn't budge an inch.

It was settled.

She was genuinely afraid of him.

She flinched when he lifted his hand and brought it close to her face, but instead of touching her cheeks or her forehead, he grabbed one of the false extensions in her hair and jerked it free. Kate winced when he threw it off to the side; then he grabbed the other one and ripped it out as well. She squeezed her eyes shut when he violently jerked her headband off her head, since her square-cut bangs flopped down across her forehead.

"Look at me."

His voice was low and threatening.

It made her stomach knot up.

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes and stared at him, feeling lightheaded.

He was looking at her with a satisfied smirk.

"No matter how hard you try to change yourself," he sneered, "you'll always be ugly. Don't ever come to school looking this disgusting again."

She merely looked at him.

Not comprehending why he said these things to her.

Why he wanted to hurt her so badly.

So, for the first time ever, she decided to ask him.

"Why are you so cruel?" she hoarsely whispered. "Why do you do always do things like this to me?"

His eyebrows twitched and the hand grasping her wrist tightened to the point where it hurt.

But he didn't answer her.

"Get off my sister already," a cold voice suddenly commanded. "It's fucking disgusting to watch."

Alan's expression twitched and his dark eyes flitted away from Kate's face. Nathan was standing near his classroom door, backpack slung over his shoulder: he didn't look worried, or angry, or even relatively concerned about what he was looking at. He was watching them with an expression of sheer contempt.

"What are you gonna do if I say no?" he cockily demanded, leering at the boy. "I don't know if you got the memo, fairy boy, but I do whatever the fuck I want to whoever the fuck I want to, _whenever_ I want. Hell, if I wanted to _fuck_ your sister here and now, I'd do it and you couldn't say shit about it."

Katherine went bone cold in her stomach and she instinctively clamped her knees together.

Her entire body tensed up and she started shivering uncontrollably, but Nathan merely quirked a thin silver eyebrow. His next words were spoken with such an icy tone of disgust that his voice alone could have frozen hell completely solid.

"I'm not too worried about that," he said simply, "because it's no secret you think she's ugly."

Kate looked at her brother with a blank face.

Trying to process what the hell that could possibly mean.

But then, Alan's hand grasped the front of her shirt.

And without taking his eyes off of Nathan's, he ripped it right down the middle. Kate shrieked and tried to fight him when most of the buttons on her dress shirt popped off, but he tightened his grip on her neck and cut her airway off. She went lightheaded, and everyone who'd been laughing fell silent.

A shocked silence filled the hall when Alan smirked.

"Well?" he demanded, quirking a brow. "You gonna stop me? Ugly or not, a hole is a hole."

Kate's face went whiter than her hair and she opened her mouth to scream at him, but his fist tightened.

So much that she saw spots.

She couldn't breathe.

He only lessened the pressure when she fell still.

"Do what you want," Nathan snorted, rolling his eyes and heading into his classroom. "Just be sure you're ready to accept what happens afterward. If you do it, you'll get charged with rape and be expelled."

When he vanished into the classroom, terror nearly made Katherine black out. All of the other people around them followed. Many of the guys were catcalling and shouting vulgar things. A few other students, particularly the girls among the group, looked extremely worried and uncomfortable.

But none of them said anything or spoke against him.

Soon, Kate and Alan were alone.

When he turned and looked at her, he let go of her throat... and she opened her mouth to scream.

But his hand smacked into her face and he grasped her jaw.

She looked at him in sheer fright.

For a long moment, he merely glared at her.

Then, to her surprise, his lip curled and he stood up.

"Ugly bitch," he muttered, kicking her thigh. "Wipe that look off your face. As if I'd ever touch you."

When the third bell finally rang, Alan swaggered away, heading towards Salem and Mitchel.

The two of them had been watching the confrontation the entire time.

Heart pounding and body shaking involuntarily, Kate sat up and clutched her bruising wrists: she wanted to cry, to scream, to do something other than just sit there. But there was nothing to be done. Nothing she could say to anybody. If he had done something to her, nobody would have given a flying fuck.

And that... that was a terrifying thought.

Slowly getting to her feet, Katie grabbed her fallen backpack and snatched her hair accessories before making her way to the bathroom, where she took off her blazer and looked at the damage done to her school shirt. With a sigh, she opened her bag and pulled out one of the two spare tops she had inside of it.

She always kept an extra uniform in her backpack out of habit since shit always happened at school.

Once she was dressed, she looked at her pigtails in the mirror with a trembling mouth.

Her face was even paler than usual, and the eyes that stared back at her looked too sad.

Her face was blank, but her eyes somehow made her look like she was going to cry.

With trembling hands, she weaved the extensions back into her hair and pushed her bangs back, using the headband to hold them down. It was a bit messier than before, but she felt a little bit better. When she left the bathroom, she didn't notice that Erika Montgomery was watching her from a distant hallway corner.

Nor did she notice that the sky outside was slowly darkening with clouds that seemed to suck the light right out of the air... clouds that seemed to be more than just the premise of a storm.

Katherine Sanders didn't even know that the day she'd been fearing for so long had finally arrived.


	6. Chapter 5: Darkness Begins to Fall

**Chapter Five: Darkness Begins to Fall**

After the events that had taken place with Alan, Kate didn't know what to think.

What to do.

So, she merely sat at her desk and stared blankly at her textbooks, too anxious and confused to really do any studying. She was half tempted to leave class and skip school for the rest of the day, but there was a part of her that feared Toni's rage. She couldn't ignore the signs that something strange was going on with Alan. She didn't know what it was, nor did she know how to deal with it, but she had some pretty wild suspicions.

And all of them had her worried

She finally lifted her eyes and stared at a few trees resting outside the window.

To her surprise, a wave of wind tore through the leaves outside.

She jumped when windows rattled on their frames, making several students look up... but then she saw the sky.

Her face went slack and she gawked in surprise.

There were storm clouds sweeping in... and they were obscuring the blue planes of sky from the East. Kate watched them with an expression of dismay, since she knew for a fact that she would have to walk home in whatever storm was coming. It was her last hour, after all. Everyone in the room paused with what they were doing and looked towards the windows when the storm front arrived.

Mostly because the entire room abruptly darkened.

The clouds outside were so dark that the late afternoon sunlight looked almost like early morning twilight.

"Whoa," Kate whispered, blinking at the sky with startled eyes. "That's one hell of a storm front... I really don't want to walk home in that."

"Miss Sanders!" Mr. Garret barked, making her whirl to the front. "Class is in Session! Please remain silent."

"Yes, Sir," she mumbled, shivering and huddling down. "S-sorry."

When the typical snickers had died down, Kate merely stared at her hands with her shoulders hunched.

All she wanted was for school to be over.

She noticed, after a while, that Erika was looking at her... but she chose to ignore it.

When Mr. Garret went back to teaching his class, Kate dragged her backpack open and rummaged around for the book she'd been given.

"What are doing, weirdo?" Tiffany whispered, watching her with observant blue eyes.

"Shut up, Tiffany," Kate whispered back, not even paying attention to how she stiffened. "Leave me alone."

"And why should I do that?"

"Because I'm sitting right next to her," Erika whispered, turning around and looking at her with a frown, "and I happen to be the student council president."

The threat was an obvious one, but it must have caught Tiffany off guard since her mouth fell open.

After a moment, she scowled and returned to painting her nails, mouth pursed as if she'd swallowed a lemon.

When a flash of lightning lit up the room, however, Kate glanced out the window yet again with a confused expression.

The clouds were dark, but her eyes must have been playing tricks on her, since they were flickering like an old movie. As she watched, they seemed to grow even darker somehow. After a moment of examining the frothing sky, she flipped the book open and started scanning the pages. Looking for any sign that her nightmares actually held some meaning she hadn't discovered. The weather only worsened as time went

on. It rained harder, and harder, and then... finally...

A flash.

 _ **BOOOOOOOM!**_

Every girl in the room, even Kate, either jumped or let out a startled scream.

Hell, even their teacher and a few of the boys jumped.

Everyone once again looked outside when more flashes lit up the sky.

"Wow," Katie whispered, leaning away from the window and squinting when a blinding bolt ripped through the sky, flashing so brilliantly that it was difficult just to peer outside; thunder roared across the metropolis like a mighty lion only seconds afterwards. "It's storming pretty bad out there..."

Erika, who was sitting next to her, opened her mouth to say something, but another blue flash exploded not too far away from the school.

Several girls shrieked again and ducked when the windows of the classroom rattled in their frames.

Right around that moment, the principle's voice came through the speakers.

" ** _All teachers are to report to the conference room right away. Students, please remain seated until your teacher returns. That is all._** "

"That doesn't sound good," Mr. Garret muttered, irritably looking at his students. "All right, behave yourselves while I'm gone. I'll be back soon."

Everyone watched as he hurried out of the room and swept down the hall at a brisk pace.

"I wonder what's going on?" a girl sitting not to far away whispered. "It's kinda unusual."

"Maybe someone brought a gun to school again," another girl replied. "Remember that one guy? With the pink hair?"

"You mean the one who tried to get with Tiffany?" a black boy sitting not too far away inquired. "What was his name...? Something with a 'B'."

"Yeah, 'B' for 'Bitch," Tiffany sneered, staring at her glistening nails with a smirk. "He had a tiny dick, anyway."

"Maybe it's just a faculty meeting or something," Erika sighed, finally looking up. "Who knows?"

"Still kind of scary, though," the girl sitting in front of her murmured, "but hey, at least I can take a break without Garret crabbing at me."

Katie tuned them out after a moment, focusing on reading the book.

She spent an entire ten minutes skimming through sketches of more odd-looking monsters and creatures that seemed rather disgusting, but just when she figured there might not actually be a connection between the book and her nightmares, she came to a page that held a drawn image of nine hooded figures holding crooked black swords. Her eyes widened and her body jerked, catching Tiffany's attention.

When she'd been moved, she had only been moved to the desk behind the one she'd originally been sitting at.

Which basically put her right behind Erika, and still only one desk away from Katie.

But hey, at least they weren't study partners anymore.

Tiffany lifted a drawn black eyebrow when she leaned forward, examining the names of the monsters that had been sketched onto the pages.

"Naz... gul?" Katie muttered, lifting her head and blinking in confusion. "What the hell is a Nazgul?"

Tiffany's blue eyes flicked to stare at the page, but her nose wrinkled in disgust when she saw the sketch.

Erika, however, surprised both of them by lifting her head.

"Now that's surprising," she noted, staring at her with a surprised expression. "I didn't think you'd be a Lord of the Rings fan."

"What?" Kate asked, whipping around and staring at her in shock. "What did you just say?"

"You said Nazgul, right...?" Erika quipped, leaning closer to her. "That's what those evil monsters that stabbed Frodo in the first movie were called... right?"

"I don't know. I've never seen the movies," Kate explained, staring at her with unblinking eyes. "What are they about?"

"You've never seen Lord of the Rings?!" Erika gasped, eyes widening in shock. "Well, what about the Hobbit?"

"You mean that new movie that's playing in Theaters?"

"Yeah, that one!"

"Um... I've only ever seen a preview. What's the story about?"

"Oh, man! You've been living under a rock!" Erika laughed, turning and writing down something on her work sheet. "Well, I've only seen the first one myself, so I can't tell you everything... but from what I remember, it's about a group of people who band together in an effort to destroy an evil ring that this freaky monster wants. I think its name is Saurent or something. The whole movie is really awesome and I meant to watch the other two."

Kate's heart nearly stopped.

"T-that movie wasn't based on a true story, r-right?" she squeaked, voice coming out so shaken that Erika stared at her. "It wasn't real, right?!"

"No, it's a fantasy movie," Erika explained, giving her an amused grin. "Did you really think something like that could be real?"

Katie didn't answer.

Feeling immensely disturbed, she went back to reading, not knowing what to think. When the last bell finally rang, their teacher still hadn't returned so nobody was actually allowed to leave, but everyone still got up in a flurry of action, talking to each other and gathering their things. Erika, on the other hand, merely stood up and sat down on top of her desk with a sigh. Katie waited for a long moment to lift her eyes.

Erika was looking at her with a sympathetic smile.

"So," the brunette sighed, fiddling with a strand of her waist-length hair. "I saw what happened with Alan after I threatened to write him up."

Katie stared at her.

"And?" she deadpanned, tilting her head. "Your point is?"

"Well, don't worry about him too much," Erika explained, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. "He would never truly do something like what he threatened this morning. He's a total asshole, but he was simply looking for a reaction. If you just ignore him, he'll move on. Trust me."

Kate silently put her book away and stared out the window.

Wishing her teacher would return so she could get away from everyone.

"Hey, Katie?" Erika asked, shouldering her bag. "I kinda want to talk to you about something."

"Sure, whatever," Kate mumbled inaudibly. "Not like I'm going anywhere."

A flash of lightning illuminated the classroom windows after she said it.

"You know?" Erika said softly, finally lowering her eyes. "I've been wanting to tell you this, officially, for a long time... but... I'm not sure if I should."

"Just say whatever you need to and be done with it," Kate retorted, staring at her small, pale hands. "Please."

"Well, okay," Erika murmured, looking back up at her with solemn blue eyes. "It's about Nathan."

Kate's bland expression flinched and she had to bite her tongue.

"You're dating him, right?" Kate finally muttered; even though she was completely calm, her heart was beating a mile a minute. "That's what this is about?"

Erika's ocean blue eyes flickered with uncertainty when she looked up with a bitter smile.

"Yes," she whispered. "We're officially going out as of this morning."

Kate nodded, heart dropping through her stomach.

"Take care of him," she said, speaking in a detached tone. "Make him happy... and bring his smile back."

With that, she looked away, staring at the window with an ache in her chest.

She was hoping Erika would drop it.

That the conversation was over.

But to her dismay, the girl set a hand on her shoulder.

"I thought... you would be happier," Erika murmured, biting her lip. "I want to be your friend, Kate, so... why do you look so upset?"

For a long moment, she said nothing... but it couldn't be helped.

So she decided to be honest.

"It upsets me because he hasn't... smiled at _me..._ in years," Kate weakly explained, refusing to look away from the sky. "I'm pretty sure he hates me."

"He doesn't hate you!" Erika scoffed, looking startled. "Seriously! You're his twin sister, Katie! How could he hate you?!"

Because," Kate said simply, shaking her head, "I'm the reason everything in our lives has gone so wrong."

Her voice cracked on the last word, so she closed her eyes, full lips tightening into a thin line. Her chest heaved and she trembled with the force of restraining her tears; once she got herself under control, she let out a sigh and shook her head. Erika, however, lowered her eyes to the floor.

"He doesn't hate you," she whispered. "Kate, your brother doesn't hate you... I promised him I would never tell anyone, especially you, but... because I don't think he knows how deeply he's been hurting you, I'm going to break that promise. Right now."

Kate stared.

"What do you mean?" she asked, keeping an eye on the other loudly chatting students to make sure they couldn't hear. "And before you reply, please keep in mind that we aren't alone."

"I'll make this quick," Erika sighed, looking at her with a tired expression. "When I met Nathaniel for the very first time... it changed my life forever."

"What?" Kate demanded, staring at her without blinking. "How could meeting _him_ change your life?"

"I don't know how to explain it," Erika murmured, shaking her head. "I... I met Nate only nine days after my mother and father passed away in a car accident... it's why I'm even attending this school, you know: after they passed, there was nobody who could pay my previous school's tuition, so the government put me in here. Anyway, I was still numb over how everything had happened, so I wasn't exactly in a good state of mind. I met him on the bridge overlooking the East River... but... if I'm going to be honest with you... your brother was... going to jump off and kill himself."

Kate's heart almost stopped beating as a result of the ice that swept throughout her chest

"He... he wouldn't..."

The fact that Nathan had been on the same bridge, pondering the very same thing she had attempted to do countless other times, truly made her wonder if they still had the telepathic bond they'd shared as infants. As babies, even when they'd sneezed, they'd done it at the same time.

"If I hadn't grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him off the edge of the railing, he would have jumped," Erika whispered, closing her eyes. "The moment he turned around and looked at me, my breath was taken away. I honestly thought I was looking at an angel, Kate. His eyes were so sad..."

She choked up for a moment, then laughed a little.

"When I tried to scold him for being stupid... he totally broke down. I was a little freaked. I mean, a strange boy just hugged me and started crying. I wanted to make him let go, but I was so afraid that he would shatter into a million pieces if I touched him that I didn't."

Katherine felt stunned to her core, since Nathan had only ever cried once.

Ever.

"After that day, we started talking to each other," Erika mumbled, twiddling her thumbs. "I was really surprised that we actually went to the same school."

"The coincidence would shock anyone," Kate croaked, unsure of how to handle any of this.

"I know, right?" Erika sighed, planting her chin on her hands. "Every single day since then, I've waited for him on that same bridge so we could walk to school together, since I was worried about him. I haven't seen that look in eyes since we started talking... but then I saw _you."_

"What do you mean...?" Kate whispered hoarsely. "What's any of this got to do with me?"

"Your eyes look like your brother's did on the day I met him," she explained, rubbing her temples, "but the difference with you is that it never goes away like it does with him. I keep expecting to see that look disappear, even if it's being covered up, but it never does... and it aggravates me because I _recognize_ it now. You and your brother obviously had some awful crap happen to you, but I want to make it easier somehow. Starting with school."

Kate only had one question after hearing all this.

"Why?"

Erika smiled a little, but she did look a bit nervous.

"B-because," she stammered, fiddling with her pencil case, "I... I'm head over heels in love with your brother, Kate. And I want you to accept me."

Another flash of lightning lit up the windows, but this one lasted longer than it should have.

In fact... it didn't even seem like lightning at all.

Kate's eyes had gone completely blank because something within her soul, something that felt abnormally important, was being dissolved.

It was like a small anchor inside her had somehow been lifted away, and the dread... the feeling of danger that had balled up in her stomach...

It was being let loose.

In that moment, Katherine knew something was about to happen.

And somehow, she had a feeling that Erika's seemingly harmless statement had triggered it.

She stiffened when she felt an icy draft of air tickling the back of her neck.

A strange presence suddenly entered her awareness, as though someone had just taken up space directly behind her. Several loose strands of soft white hair drifted in front of her face as she sat there, staring at the chalkboard with enormous eyes. Erika was still talking, her ears had begun to ring in a deafening manner, blotting out everything around her and muffling the sound of the brunette's voice.

She felt, rather than heard, the breath of air that the person behind her took.

 _I don't want to see..._ Katherine silently whispered, heart speeding up and pounding against her chest; the world around her distorted a little as the ringing noise grew louder, making her see black and red spots. _I don't want to see whoever is behind m_ e...

Unfortunately, she felt as though dark and shadowy hands were reaching out to grab her from behind.

Hands that would do something terrible to her if she didn't face them.

So, she slowly turned around.

She found herself staring into the eyes of a grown man with long black hair.

Standing in the aisle between the desks near the back of the room, he was looking straight at her with irises the color of liquid silver.

Her heart palpitated.

She didn't want to have anything to do with him.

She knew something terrible would happen if he came anywhere near her.

"W-who the hell is that?" Kate abruptly demanded, catching the attention of several students. "How'd he get in here?"

"Huh?" Erika asked, staring at her in confusion before turning around and looking at the man as well; she instantly jumped and her eyes widened. "Whoa! When did he get in here?"

He didn't answer them.

Narrowing his eyes, he began to movie down the isle towards Kate, who jumped out of her seat and whirled so she was facing him.

"What are you doing?" Kate stammered, staring at him with a startled expression. "Do you need something?"

He simply continued advancing.

"He's kinda hot," Tiffany drawled, cocking her hip. _"_ Who is he, though?"

"Girl, I don't even know, but he is _fine_! Mmf!" a black girl giggled, eyeing him up and down. "I'd tap that in a heartbeat!"

"This guy is weird!" Erika exclaimed, standing up and backing away when the guy continued advancing towards her and Kate. "How the heck did he get in here without anyone noticing? And why isn't he saying anything?!"

Tiffany frowned.

"Good question," she muttered, tapping her chin. "I've been by the door since the bell rang left, so I would have seen him."

Kate and Erika continued backing away since he slowly crept towards them, but when the brunette finally turned around and hurried over towards the other side of the room, he didn't even glance at her. Those silver eyes remained fixed on Katherine, who looked around and backed up in dismay.

"Hey, s-stop it!" she finally squeaked, lifting her hands. "Seriously, get away from me! I don't know what you want, but you're creeping me out!"

Without a word, he bolted forward and abruptly snatched her wrist, violently jerking her forward.

Kate shrieked loudly in fright, causing several of the students standing in the room to jump.

"Katie!" Erika shouted, eyes widening in shock; then her expression turned to outrage. "Hey, asshole! Take your hands off her! Right now!"

"Ow! Let go! Let go of me!" Kate yelped, struggling to get out of his grasp. "OW! Someone, help me! Go get a teacher!"

The man's eyes narrowed and his fist tightened.

" _OWWWWW!"_ Kate shrieked, finally hitting his arm with her free hand. "Ow! Ow! OW! Let me _go_! That hurts!"

"Halt your foolish behavior," the finally hissed, roughly jerking her forward with cold silver eyes. "You _will_ come with me."

"GET OFF ME, YOU FUCKING CREEP!" Kate screeched, snapping her head forward and biting his arm as hard as she could; when his grip slackened, she pulled her hand out of his grasp with all of her strength and stumbled away from him; she ended up tripping over a chair and smacked into the wall, but she somehow managed to stay on her feet. "S-stay back! Don't touch me! Ever again!"

"K-Katherine, what's going on?" Erika stammered, watching as the man approached her again. "How serious is this situation?!"

"It's serious! It's _dead_ serious!" Katie wailed, shakily picking up a nearby math textbook and throwing it at the man; when he merely ducked and continued moving forward, she backed into the corner and pressed herself against the wall. "Hurry up and go get Mr. Garret!"

"This is probably just a hoax," one of her classmates uneasily chortled. "It can't be happening for real, right?"

Katie frantically scrabbled for the nearest object and happened upon a chalkboard eraser, which she threw with all of her strength; when the man tilted his head and dodged it with no change in expression, her knees started shaking and she felt like she was going to pass out.

"Stop it! Don't take another step!" she wailed, dancing from foot to foot. "Seriously, I mean it! I won't hesitate to kick you in the balls if you don't leave me alone! Don't come any closer!"

"You are being foolish," the man coldly informed her. "Halt your insolent behavior."

"THEN GET AWAY FROM ME!" Katie shrieked, bursting into terrified tears. "NATHAN! NATHAN, HELP ME!"

"S-she's crying!" a boy scoffed, eyes widening with a start. "Whoa! Dude, the witch is crying! Look!"

"Okay, it's official: this isn't a hoax," Tiffany muttered, whirling around and bolting out out of sight. "I'll be right back, Kate! Just hold on for a bit!"

"Hurry!" Kate cried, cowering down with a squeak when her assailant slammed his hands down on either side of her. "Jesus! HURRY, TIFFANY!"

"Silence," the man hissed, narrowing his silver eyes; when he lifted his hand and clutched her small chin, tilting her head up, she started trembling. "My eyes see things that were, things that are, and things that may be. You are indeed the one I have been looking for."

"HUH?!" Kate choked, staring at him with hunched shoulders and wide eyes; she tried to pull away, but his fingers tightened on her chin. "Ow! Let go!"

When she struggled to pull free, he refused to move... but then, a textbook smacked him in the side of the head.

He turned with a dark expression to find Erika standing there, holding two more.

"Take your hands off of her, freak!" she snapped, throwing the next book and hitting him again. "Pervert! Pedophile!"

When the next book hit him, he merely stared at her, then wordlessly turned to look at Kate.

With an irritated face, he abruptly let go of her chin and pressed a single finger against her forehead.

Katie's breath hitched when a searing agony instantly burned through her right shoulder.

"OW!" she cried, clutching her arm. "My shoulder! OWWWWW! Fuck! Fuck! It's burning! It's burning! Ow!"

"What's going on here?!" Mr. Garret suddenly demanded, shouldering his way into the classroom with Tiffany close behind; the moment he took in the scene before him, he blinked in surprise. "Excuse me, but who are you? Explain to me why you're harassing my student, otherwise I'll be calling the authorities and letting them handle this situation."

"This is none of your concern," the strange man retorted, glancing at the teacher with no change in his expression. "Leave us be."

Mr. Garret and everyone standing behind him froze, since nobody had believed the guy would stand against a teacher. Several of the smarter students left the entrance and hastily ran down the hall, sprinting at top speed towards the main offices: nobody wanted to deal with a lunatic, especially if he had some sort of concealed weapon on him. Kate stared at Mr. Garret with fearful eyes.

"What did you just say to me?" Mr. Garret demanded, glancing at her terrified expression with furrowed brows. "While she's under the roof of this school, that girl is _all_ of my concern. She is one of _my_ students, and _her_ safety was entrusted to _me._ Now, can you rationally explain to me how a man your size managed to back a high school girl into a corner? Speak up, sir! Now!"

"If you care so much about her safety," the stranger said in a silken voice, "let her come with me."

"What do you mean?" Mr. Garret scoffed, then turned and looked at Kate. "Miss Sanders, what's going on here? Do you know him?"

"No, I don't!" she cried, shaking her head. "He won't leave me alone, and he..."

Kate would have continued explaining things... but before she could, the room in front of her disappeared and she had a vision.

 _The classroom... there was glass... a thundering sound... everyone was lying dead... and..._

She twitched back to reality within seconds, but by that point, it was too late.

"GET DOWN!" Katie screeched, instinctively dropping to all fours and covering her head with both hands. "NOW! HURRY!"

Some people, such as Erika, Tiffany, and a few frightened students who had adrenaline pumping through them hit the deck out of instinct; others chose to remain upright, her teacher included.

Only a split second later, an enormous shadow abruptly fell across the walls for a moment, darkening the classroom immensely.

Then, with a horrible roaring nose, every single window in the classroom exploded in a shower of glass and wood: a howling wind filled the air, and glass from the busted windows went flying into the room, eliciting several screams. Then there was complete silence.

No sound emanated from the classroom.

But then, several terrified screams began to ring in every single direction.

Some of them from far away, others from right outside in the hallway.

When Kate lifted her head, she felt her heart drop through the floor: the entire room had been completely demolished within the span of a second.

Students lay on the floor with desks and chairs on top of them, some bleeding from the flying glass, others bruised from the wood that had flown off the walls, and the rest unconscious from the furniture that had crashed into them. Kate's entire body quaked as she took in all of the upturned desks. When she twisted around and looked behind her, her face completely drained of color.

Every single one of the windows had somehow imploded into the classroom.

"W-what the hell?!" Kate spluttered, looking at the destruction in horror. "What just happened?! All the windows are gone!"

"Oh, my God," Tiffany whimpered, staring at the unconscious students all around her with enormous eyes. "Oh, my fucking GOD!"

"S-Sanders..." Mr. Garret croaked, finally lifting his head; the girl's breath caught in terror when she realized that his left cheek had been sliced by a piece of glass. "Call... a doctor..."

"No!" Tiffany screeched, instantly whirling around. "Don't let her do it!"

"Why?!" Erika cried, looking at everything in shock. "We have to get help!"

Tiffany didn't respond: she merely glared at Kate with frigid blue eyes, blonde hair disheveled and face dark.

"You knew," she hissed, making Kate freeze. "You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?! You did this! This was all because of you!"

"Huh?! No!" Kate whispered, stiffening in horror when she glanced at all of her injured classmates. "No! No, I swear!"

"Liar!" Tiffany screeched, crawling over and clutching the front of Katie's girl's blazer. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT, ISN'T IT?! _ISN'T IT?!_ YOU WITCH! YOU CURSED US! YOU _CURSED_ US! YOU STUPID FREAK!"

"You're wrong!" she cried. "I didn't do it! I swear! I swear, Tiffany! It wasn't me!"

"LIAR!" Tiffany screeched again, grabbing her pigtails and jerking her head around with a violent snarl. "YOU'RE A WITCH! A FREAK! GOD DAMN IT, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"Tiffany, get off of her!" Erika yelped, lunging forward and smacking her arms off of the smaller girl. "It wasn't her fault! How could she possibly be behind this sort of thing?! It's only because of her that we even _knew_ it was going to happen, you moron!"

"I-it wasn't me," Katie stammered, shaking her head in fright. "I didn't do it... I swear... it wasn't my fault!"

Her whole body froze up when the stranger moved directly behind her.

When she jerkily looked over her shoulder and looked up at him with shaking limbs, his silver eyes were psychotic-looking.

"Come with me," he hissed, silver eyes widening in a threatening manner. _"Now."_

Nope.

Finally reaching her wit's end, Kate scrambled to her feet and bolted for the door, screaming at the top of her lungs. Her silver hair flew behind her when she took off down the hall at top speed; several students jumped and moved aside when she tore past them, but her heart nearly burst out of her chest when she glanced over her shoulder realized she was being chased by the creepy stranger.

Breathing hard, she started running as fast as she could, dress shoes clacking against tile.

 _Nathan, please,_ Kate silently begged, panting as she sprinted down every hall she could find. _Please! Help me!_

When she girl skidded to a halt at the double stairways that led to the upper and lower floors, she instantly started heading towards the ground.

An enormous shadow unexpectedly blotted out the light coming through the windows for a brief moment, making her jump.

She eyed the windows, wondering what the hell she had just seen, but then...

It happened again.

The windows at the end of the the hall abruptly cracked with a huge thundering noise and rapidly blasted into the corridor, one after the other, in a quick line directly towards where she was standing. Kate instantly let out a terrified shriek and dove behind the stairway banister, covering her head just as the rest of the windows in the hallway behind her exploded. A terrible thundering wind flew into the school directly afterwards, making her shiver violently.

When everything fell silent, however, she slowly rose to her feet and peered at the destruction in horror.

Then the air grew cold and her hair stood on end for no reason whatsoever.

Kate glanced up at the ceiling when a thin layer of shadow began to slide across it, stretching past her and moving on down the decimated hallway.

After a moment of staring at the strange anomaly, wondering if it was another vision, she turned and looked towards the source.

Her heart flew up her throat when she saw the first shadowy figure walking into sight... followed by eight more. Her lips quivered and she took a step backwards when they turned towards her. One of the hooded figures drew a familiar black sword and lifted it, uttering the same banshee-like screech she'd heard on the East River Bridge. Only this time it was louder, and much more vivid.

It made her skin crawl.

"Oh, shit," Kate whispered, backing away when they began gliding towards her. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..."

When they screeched again, the girl let out a terrified squeak and flew down the stairs, heading for the library with her feet flying.

She needed to get to Miss McKinley.

Miss McKinley would know what to do!

Just as she opened the door and the librarian blinked at her with a smile, the stranger appeared behind her out of nowhere.

The girl jumped when he gripped her wrist and prevented her from moving inside her sanctuary.

"NO! Let me go!" Kate screeched, struggling against his powerful grip. "Miss McKinley! Miss McKinley, help me! HELP!"

"What on earth?!" the old woman gasped, standing up in an instant. "W-what are you doing to Katherine?! Let go of her, this instant, you cretin!"

"Not here," the man snapped, making her flinch. "Go to the roof!"

"SHUT UP!" the girl screamed, still struggling to get away from him. "LET GO OF ME AND-!"

The rest of her words were cut off by the sound of shattering glass and a high-pitched scream.

Kate instantly whirled around and gasped when she saw Miss McKinley staring at the library windows, which had exploded in a spray of glittering shards.

"W-what in the name of everything good just happened here?!" the elderly woman squalled, running over to the windows with enormous eyes. "W-what?!"

"If you do not wish to cause anymore harm to anyone," the man rapped out, glaring into her eyes, "you must go to the roof!"

"WHY?!" Kate wailed, tearing past him and sprinting past a few confused-looking students who'd been on their way up the stairs. "This is _so_ not okay!"

Regardless, she ran up two complete flights of steps until she hit the entrance to the rooftop.

A fierce wind assaulted her the moment she stepped outside, but once she was out in the open she doubled over to catch her breath.

"Kate?" a familiar voice asked, making the girl jump in surprise; she whipped around to see her brother sitting on the building that served as the rooftop door's foundation. "What are you doing here?"

"Nathan, thank God!" Kate cried, heart soaring. "Listen, we have to get out of here! Like, right now!"

"Why?" he scoffed, scowling at her. "School is already over, so I'm sitting up here to watch the lightning."

"You're gonna get hit, you idiot!" she cried, momentarily forgetting her predicament; however, when the man gripped her wrist, she jumped. "HEY! Let go!"

"Who the hell is that?!" Nate called, brows raising when she struggled.

"Help me!" she wailed, kicking the stranger's shins. "He's a psycho! My whole classroom _blew up_ after he walked in!"

 _"_ Wait, _what_?!" Nathan barked, instantly getting to his feet. "What do you mean your classroom blew up?"

"I mean all the windows exploded, even the windows in the second floor hallway and the library!" Kate cried. "Nathan, help me!"

Her brother stared at the man behind her, looking a bit confused, but when the stranger's grip tightened to the point where Kate's wrist popped and she let out a yelp of pain, his eyes sharpened.

"Let go of my sister right now!" he growled, moving to the edge of the rooftop. "Otherwise I'll beat the shit out of you, bitch!"

That's when a deafening animal screech split the air.

Nathan glanced up only a split second before Kate did.

Both twins turned a sickly shade of white when they saw what was resting in the air above them.

"Oh... my... God..." Katie whispered, eyes becoming devoid of all reflective sheen.

A dragon the size of a small building was plummeting towards them from the sky.

And it was coming right at them.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Nathan bellowed, jumping off the edge of his resting spot. "HOLY SHIT!"

It was going to crash into the building... or rather, right into them. But before it could, an even _more_ impossible sight met her eyes: a giant eagle the size of Toni's house flew overhead and smashed into the dragon, sending a multitude of black feathers raining down from the sky. Kate's knees instantly buckled and she could only stare at the fighting creatures in the sky. The man beside her regarded her with an expression so cold that she shivered.

"Who... are you?" Kate whispered, staring up him with terror in her eyes. "Why are you here?"

"I am Gwendolyn," the stranger thundered, giving her an otherworldly expression. "I have come here to collect you."

Kate covered her ears, not wanting to listen, to hear, to live.

She wanted to pretend it was a bad dream.

Then again, in a way, that's exactly what it was: a nightmare.

And the shittiest part was the fact that she was completely awake.

Even worse than that was the Fox 37 news van sitting in front of the gate: the man Kate had saved was holding a microphone in his hand, mouth open and completely agape. The camerawoman was pointing the lens at the monstrous creatures battling on the rooftop. As far as Kate was currently concerned, things literally couldn't get any worse than they already were.

Sadly, she was wrong.

Things were about to get a whole lot worse, and fast.


End file.
